Inhibited
by brighterthansun
Summary: Reid couldn't move - he was left completely helpless and at the mercy of his abductor. Would the rest of the BAU team be able to find him in time? Or would they be unable to do anything but watch as the unsub carried out his plot for revenge?
1. Chapter 1

Reid had yet to open his eyes, but he knew that something wasn't right. He could feel that he was in an upright position - sitting in a chair perhaps. He definitely was not at home in his bed, which is where he wished he could be.

Reid searched his memory for a clue as to what had happened and where he might be. The team had just finished a particularly long and gruesome case, and opted for a late flight home instead of staying one more night. They had the next few days off, and were looking forward to sleeping in their own beds that night. It was the middle of the night when Reid had pulled into his parking spot in his apartment's parkade. The last thing he remembered was getting out of his car and opening the back door to grab his messenger bag. He felt a sharp pain in his head, as if he had been hit my something, and he vaguely remembered the sensation of falling. He had been unconscious before his body had even hit the pavement.

Reid could still feel the pain radiating from his temple, and dry blood on the side of his face told him that some time had passed since he was struck. He couldn't feel any further injuries, but something definitely didn't feel right. He tried to open his eyes. It took an incredible amount of effort, but after a few seconds, his eyelids cracked open and he got the first look at where he was.

It appeared to be a partially finished basement. A light was on somewhere above his head. In front of him was a set of wooden stairs that led upwards to a door. On either side of the stairs, he could see small windows near the ceiling. It appeared to still be night, so he couldn't have been out for too long. The walls consisted unpainted drywall, and the floor seemed to be cement. He could see a furnace and water heater under the stairs. Reid tried to move his head to get a better look at the rest of the room, but it remained frozen in place. He tried to lift his hand to his head, but again it refused to listen to the signals his brain was sending. Reid's breathe quickened as the realization dawned on him that he was unable to move any part of his body, aside from his eyelids. He couldn't feel any restraints, though he was unable to look down at his body to confirm. Reid's mind was beginning to panic. _What is happening to me? Where am I?_ Knowing that panic would get him nowhere, Reid took a second to collect himself. He forced himself to take deep breathes and closed his eyes for a few seconds. _Don't panic. You're a profiler. Figure out what's going on. You can do this._ When Reid felt like he had reassured himself as much as he could, he opened his eyes again.

Reid began assessing all of the sensations he was experiencing. It felt as though he was sitting in a wooden chair. His arms sat on armrests, and his feet touched the floor. The pain in his temple throbbed, and it was possible he had a concussion. He felt no other pain, except… _No. It can't be._ He felt a slight stinging coming from his left arm, and also felt that his long sleeve shirt had been rolled up on that side only. _I've been injected with some sort of drug. Probably a neural inhibitor judging from my inability to move despite being completely conscious and relatively unharmed. Who would do this?_ Reid didn't have to wait long to find out though, because the basement door was opening.

* * *

Aaron Hotchner sighed as he looked at the clock in his vehicle after pulling into his driveway. It read 2:04am as he turned off the engine of his SUV, grabbed this briefcase from the passenger seat, and closed and locked the vehicle's door. He was happy that the team had all agreed to fly home instead of staying the night. All he wanted right now was to set his eyes on his son, Jack.

As he opened the door to his home, Aaron quickly made his way to the keypad to disarm the silent alarm. Jessica and Jack would both be sleeping and he didn't want to disturb them. After dropping his keys, jacket, and briefcase in the hallway, he headed to Jack's room. The young boy was sleeping soundly, clutching his Captain America action figure. Aaron made his way over to the bed and sat next to his sleeping son. As awful as the BAU's latest case had been, all of his worries melted away as he sat watching Jack sleep. Aaron planted a kiss on Jack's forehead, brushed his hand through Jack's hair, and whispered, "I love you, buddy." A few more seconds were spent staring at his son, before he reluctantly stood and headed to his own bedroom. As a single parent and a man with a very unpredictable work schedule, Aaron knew he had to sleep while he had the opportunity. As he changed into pajamas and got ready for bed, Aaron thought about what he and Jack would do for the next couple of days. It was Jack's summer vacation, and Aaron looked forward to having a few days off to spend with his son. He plugged his phone in and set it on his bedside table. Aaron resisted the urge to turn the ringer off, but silently hoped that the phone wouldn't wake him from his slumber and pull him away from his much earned time off. As Aaron climbed into bed and drifted to sleep, he decided that he would take Jack to the park the next day.

* * *

3:52am. That's what the clock beside Aaron's bed read when he heard his phone chime. _Who would be texting me at this hour?_

He turned on his bedside lamp in an effort to jolt himself awake, before grabbing his cellphone and unplugging it from the wall. "Multimedia Message" it said, from an unknown number. When he opened the message, a photo appeared that nearly made him drop his phone. He was out of his bed in a heartbeat, making his way to the landline phone on his dresser. He needed to keep his cell's line free, just in case. Aaron dialled a number he knew by heart.

The phone rang twice before he heard a very groggy voice pick up. "Sir, it's very early. Is everything okay?"

Aaron was already gathering clothes and getting himself ready as he talked. "Garcia, I need you to call Prentiss and JJ. The three of you need to be in the BAU conference room as quickly as possible. I'll call the rest of the team. We have a case."

Aaron could hear Garcia getting out of bed as she spoke. "Yes sir. I will call them and get them in to the office ASAP. It's bad, isn't it sir?"

"It's not good Garcia. I'll explain when everyone gets there. Make sure they hurry." Hotch hung up the phone and made similar calls to Rossi, and then to Morgan. His team members didn't ask a lot of questions, but he knew that they sensed something was up.

Hotchner took one last look at the image that had been sent to his cell phone. It was a picture of Reid. He was clearly unconscious and propped up in a chair. He was unrestrained, but his eyes were closed and a small trail of blood was visible on the side of his face. In his lap was a whiteboard with a message written on it in red marker. It said, "you can only watch."


	2. Chapter 2

Hotch purposely waited in his office until he knew that all of his teammates had arrived. All except Spencer Reid, of course. He wanted to explain the situation to everyone at once, and knew he would be bombarded with questions the moment he stepped into the room. Hotch sighed, grabbed his phone, and walked out of his office towards the conference room.

As he entered the room, the light chatter that had been happening died down. He expected that they were already theorizing about what could have been important enough to call them in so ealy in the morning after just wrapping a case. Hotch scanned the room before he started to speak. Exhaustion could be read on each person's face, and he was sure that it was etched into his as well. He couldn't delay any longer. "I expect you are all wondering why I called you in," Hotch began.

"Aren't we going to wait for Reid?" Morgan asked. Hotch looked Morgan in the eyes and could see a glimmer of worry starting to form.

Hotch tried to keep his voice calm. "Reid's not coming." He continued speaking, not allowing the team time to react. "Approximately twenty minutes ago, I received this photo to my cell phone." Aaron clicked a button on a remote to bring the image up on the large screen in the room. He stared down at the table instead of the screen, having already committed the details of the image to his memory. He gave the team a few seconds to absorb what they were seeing. He knew he had to remain strong and in control, as the leader of the team. He had to hide his feelings, which at the moment consisted of worry and fear for his colleague and friend.

"Oh my god! Who would do this?" Garcia exclaimed. She was the first to speak. Hotch looked up at her and could see tears already forming in her eyes. He looked at the rest of the team's faces, one by one. Derek Morgan looked angry more than anything else. Hotch suspected that if he wasn't holding Garcia's hands to comfort her, he would be punching something. JJ's right hand covered her mouth in shock as she tried to take in what she was seeing. Emily was looking away from the screen, trying to reign in her emotions. She looked dangerously close to letting her worry show, and Aaron knew that she was attempting to appear as strong as he was trying to be. Rossi seemed to be studying the picture. Hotch knew that he was an expert at compartmentalizing his emotions, and was already into profiler mode.

"So what do we know?" Rossi asked. The rest of the team seemed to be snapped out of some pretty dark thoughts and brought back to the present.

Hotch nodded a silent thanks to Rossi for keeping the team on track. That was of the upmost importance right now. "We know very little. From examining the image, it appears that Reid has been hit in the head. There don't appear to be any other visible injuries, and he's not restrained in any way that I can see. There's not much in the background of the photo, but it's clearly not Reid's apartment. I tried to call Reid's cell phone a couple of times, but unsurprisingly it went straight to voicemail. I've already ordered a forensics team to Reid's apartment to see if there are any signs of struggle there. Prentiss and Rossi, I want you to go over there and see if they find anything. Garcia, I need you to see if you can trace where this message came from. You should also use GPS to find the locations of Reid's cell phone and vehicle in case they are with him. JJ, I want you to start getting ahold of your media contacts. I want every person in America to be on the lookout for Reid. Morgan, you and I are going to stay here and start working on a profile." Hotch took a deep breath and softened his expression. "Look, I know we are all exhausted and worried about Reid. But we need to focus and work this case like we would any other. Based on the photo, we can assume that Reid is alive and okay for now. The unsub wouldn't send this to me if he was just going to kill him. We WILL find Reid, I have no doubt about that. In the meantime, none of you are to go anywhere alone. If this is an attack on the BAU, I don't want any of you to be the next victim."

Victim. Hotch knew that Reid would hate that word being used on him. Reid had been a 'victim' more times that any one person had a right to be. Hotch wondered what the probability was of one person encountering so many dangerous situations in such a short life. If Spencer had regained consciousness yet, he was probably calculating those very odds right now. But Reid was strong. He was a survivor, and he would make it. Hotch was sure of this. Reid's mind was the sharpest Hotch had ever seen. But it was his warmth, his innocence, and his enthusiasm for life that made him such a wonderful person to be around. Such an integral part of the team. Hotch just hoped all of those qualities would remain when Reid returned to them.

"Hotch? He's going to be okay. This is Reid we're talking about," Morgan said. Hotch looked around the room and realized that the rest of the team had left to carry out their assignments.

"Let's get started." Hotch wasn't going to waste any more time. Every second that passed was another second where God knows what could be happening to Reid.

* * *

Reid's felt his pulse quicken as a pair of shoes came into view. Black dress shoes. Then grey slacks. A blue collared shirt with a tie under a white coat, like a doctor or psychologist would wear. As the unsub's face came into view, Reid instantly recognized him. It had been a couple of years, but the man was unmistakable. Anger rose in Reid as he glared at the man. If he could move his hands, they would be balled into fists, he was sure of it. It was all starting to make sense, and Reid knew exactly what was happening to him. He knew why he was here. And he was fairly certain that this man had something very painful in store for Reid.

"Shall we get started, Dr. Reid?" The man approached Reid and bent down so that his smiling face was level with Reid's. "We have a lot to cover."

Reid had no choice but to look the man straight in the eye. He didn't like what he saw – amusement and a hint of pleasure at having Reid at his complete mercy. This man had clearly suffered a psychotic break since Reid had last seen him. Reid knew that didn't bode well for him. _Stay strong Reid. The team will find you. You just have to survive until they do._


	3. Chapter 3

JJ entered the conference room containing Hotch, Morgan, and Garcia. Garcia had set up two laptops, opting to work from this room with the rest of the team instead of out of her normal office. Morgan and Hotch stopped talking when the noticed JJ had something to say. "I've reached out to all of my contacts. Reid will be on all of the morning news broadcasts. If someone has seen him, We'll know about it. What can I help with here?"

Hotch got straight to business. "Morgan and I have started building a profile, but we don't have much to go on. As we narrow down who we are looking for, I was hoping you could start going through recent case files to try to find anyone who might have a vendetta against Reid."

Morgan spoke up. "This guy might not have something against Reid specifically. Look at this note. 'You can only watch.' He's trying to get under our skin and make us feel helpless. He may have something against you Hotch, since you're the one he sent this to. Or the BAU in general. Reid could have just been deemed the easiest target." Morgan looked down at the photo of Reid that he held in his hand. He clenched his jaw as he fought down the anger that was building towards the unsub, and the worry he had for his friend. _Why does it always have to be you, kid? I know you can hold your own, but I wish you didn't have to prove it so often._

JJ nodded. "I'll start sorting case files so we can eliminate possibilities as we build the profile." She grabbed a stack of brown folders sitting on the conference room table. _Hang in there Spence. We'll find you._

"Sir?" Garcia said, pulling Hotch's attention towards her.

"What did you find, Garcia?" Hotch asked. He knew it wouldn't be long before she had some information.

Garcia spoke as she typed. "Sir, I tracked Reid's car. It looks like it's at his apartment. His cell phone is off the grid, I think it's been turned off. But the last place it pinged was at his apartment as well. I'll keep a trace on it in case it turns back on."

"What about the photo, were you able to track where it was sent from?" Hotch asked, knowing that if she had, she probably would have led with the good news.

"I'm afraid not sir. It was sent through a burner phone. All I can tell you is that it was taken at 3:50am, right before it was sent you to, according to the embedded data. But the location information has been wiped. I'm not sure there's anything else I can do with it sir," Garcia sadly stated.

"Okay Penelope. Keep working to see if there's anything else in that photo that will give us a clue as to where Reid is or who has him," Hotch ordered. He knew that she was already doing this, but it helped him to feel like he had some control over the situation to give orders to his team members. And he needed to feel in control or he wouldn't be able to keep himself together.

* * *

Prentiss got in to the driver's seat of her SUV as Rossi jumped in the passenger side. They were finished at Reid's apartment and heading back to the BAU. Rossi called Hotch to fill him in. The phone rang only once before Hotch picked up.

"Dave. You're on speaker with me, Morgan, JJ, and Garcia. What did you find?" Hotch asked.

Rossi sighed before telling them everything he knew. "It looks like Reid didn't even make it into his apartment. He was taken from the parkade. His car is here. The back driver's side door was ajar. His keys were on the ground beside the car and his messenger bag was still in the backseat. Reid's cell phone isn't here, neither is his gun. There's a small amount of blood on the pavement, no doubt from the head wound we saw in the photo. My best guess is that Reid was opening the back door to grab his bag when someone snuck up behind him and knocked him out."

Garcia jumped in to the conversation at this point. "Rossi, are there any security cameras in the parkade? If they can send me the images, maybe I can get a visual on the unsub, or at least a snap of his licence plate?" Garcia was hopeful, but that feeling lasted all of two seconds.

"Unfortunately not, kitten" Rossi answered. "The parkade has no security cameras, and there don't appear to have been any witnesses. I'm afraid we've reached a dead end here. Forensics is pulling samples, hoping for a fingerprint or some DNA. The cops are going to wait until first light and then start knocking on neighbour's doors to see if anyone saw anything. But I don't think they are going to find much. This guy seems too organized to leave a trace of himself behind. Emily and I are headed back to the BAU, we will see you soon." Rossi hung up the phone and stared out the window. The sun was just about rise. He hoped that Reid would be safe again before it set.

* * *

Reid did everything in his power to keep his fear from showing in his eyes. He stared the man down as he hovered in front of Reid's face. He was searching Reid's eyes for something – a look of terror. Reid was determined not to give that to him. Unable to turn away, he looked straight ahead, unblinking.

"Do you know why you're here, Dr. Reid?" The man asked. He paused as if expecting an answer. He turned away from Reid and began pacing the basement floor. He never left Reid's field of vision. "No answer, Dr. Reid? You were so talkative last time we met." The man laughed. "You and your team took everything from me. My daughter. My practice. My LIFE." He was beginning to get agitated, Reid noted. "Now you're going to pay for what you did."

The man walked behind Reid, out of his line of vision. Reid could hear metal clanking behind him, and something moving on wheels towards him. _What is he doing back there?_ Reid was still unable to move a single muscle, try as he might. He was completely unrestrained. The door to the basement had even been left open. If he could just MOVE, he could escape, he was sure of it. But in his current state, he was completely helpless.

"Now Dr. Reid, it's time for your treatment." The man appeared back into Reid's line of vision, and Reid couldn't help but let out a muffled moan when he saw what was in his hands.


	4. Chapter 4

**Wow, I am overwhelmed with the response this has gotten so far! Thank you all for the reviews. It's so nice that there are people invested in this story. I'm very new to writing (I only have one other story that's a work in progress), so I wasn't sure if this would turn out to be any good. I have a pretty good idea of where this is going though - I just need to get it all written out!**

 **Oh and there was a little speculation about what extent the unsub might go to. I just want to assure everyone that this story won't be sexually graphic. There are plenty of other ways to torture Reid, but I'm not planning on going there. Reid's really not this unsub's type, anyway ;)**

 **Enjoy and please review! They make me smile :)**

* * *

Prentiss and Rossi joined the rest of the team in the conference room. "What do you guys have so far?" Prentiss asked as she took a seat at the round table.

Morgan stood and paced the room as he talked. "Well, based on the handwriting on the whiteboard in the photo, the unsub appears to be male. Though Reid is better at handwriting analysis than I am." Morgan paused. He hadn't meant to mention Reid. Thinking about Reid just led his mind to start imagining all of the possibilities of what Reid might be going through at the moment.

Hotchner picked up where Morgan left off. "Our unsub is clearly organized. He likely has something against either Reid, myself, or the entire BAU. He wants us to feel helpless, so we know he seeks control. The handwriting analysis also indicates he is angry." _I don't like the idea of Reid at the mercy of an angry, vengeful unsub,_ Hotch thought.

It was Garcia's turn to pitch in her limited information. "Reid's phone was shut off at 2:02am. Let's assume that's when he was abducted. The photo was sent at 3:52am, giving the unsub one hour and 50 minutes between taking Reid and sending the photo. Assuming he kept to the speed limit to avoid unwanted attention, here's a radius of how far he could have gotten in that amount of time." Garcia pulled a map up on the screen with a big circle on it. Too big of a circle to be of much use at the moment. "I'm sorry but that's all I have at the moment." Garcia's lip started to tremble and it was clear that she was holding back tears.

"Hey baby girl. Look at me," Morgan said as he kneeled down beside Garcia and took both of her hands in his. "We are going to find Reid. This team always finds each other. It's what we do. He's going to be okay."

Garcia sniffled and tried to put on a brave face. "I know you're right. I'm just so worried about him. We have no idea what is happening to him right now." She took a tissue being offered by JJ and wiped her nose and eyes. "Thanks JJ." The technical analyst shot a half smile at the blonde woman and let go of Derek's hands as she turned back to her computer. "Okay, back to work. I'm sifting through traffic cameras, hoping to catch something that looks suspicious. But it's a needle in a haystack until I have more to go on."

"More like a needle in a pile of needles…" Morgan mumbled. The rest of the room looked at him questioningly, so he elaborated. "Oh, it's just something Reid said once. 'A needle would stand out in haystack.'" Derek looked like his emotions were about to get the better of him. He swallowed the last of his coffee and left the room under the guise of getting more. But Hotch knew he needed a moment to collect himself.

There was a moment of stillness in the room for half a second, and then everyone went back to trying to figure out where Spencer Reid was, and who could possibly have taken him.

* * *

 _Please don't. Please. Anything but that,_ Reid thought to himself. He knew that his eyes were reflecting his plea. If only he could pull away from the man who was approaching him with a syringe. What it contained, Reid could only guess.

"Don't worry doctor. It's not dilaudid." He smiled and waited for a reaction from Reid. "Oh yes, I know all about that. This is just something to keep you, shall we say, complacent. A special mix you no doubt remember." The man pushed Reid's left sleeve up further and injected the drug into his vein. Reid pushed down the flashbacks that threatened to surface in his mind. This was not the first time Reid had been injected with something against his will. _I can't believe this is happening again._

"Relax, it's just a neural inhibitor. I don't want the effects to wear off during this next part." The man walked behind Reid, who could once again hear something on wheels being pushed closer towards him. As the metal tray came into his peripheral vision, he could see that it held an electroshock therapy machine. _I should have seen this coming_ , Reid thought.

From everything he knew about this man, this was almost predictable. To distract himself from the fear building in his mind, Reid thought back to when he first encountered this man. It was two years ago during a case in Atlantic City. A very disturbed young woman named Samantha had been abducting women and using neural inhibitors on them. The women were surrogates for Samantha's doll collection that was taken from her by the man currently holding Reid hostage - her father, Dr. Arthur Malcolm. He was a therapist who, among other things, raped his daughter and then used electroshock therapy on her to keep her quiet. Reid remembered that he had been very confrontational with Dr. Malcolm on that case. It was necessary though – the information he gained by doing so had helped the team to rescue three women from Samantha's twisted game. Samantha had been taken to a sanitarium for the help that she so desperately needed, and Reid had thought that Dr. Malcolm went to jail for the rape of several of his patients.

"I'm going to make this easy for you, Dr. Reid. Here's your cell phone. And here's your gun." Malcolm smirked as he set Reid's gun and phone on the tray beside the electroshock machine. "Right in front of you. All you have to do is reach out and grab them." He laughed. He clearly got a sick sense of satisfaction from Reid being completely helpless. Reid had everything he needed to escape right in front of him – but he couldn't move. It was infuriating to Reid. He shot daggers from his eyes.

"I guess you want to stay and have some therapy then. Let's see if this thing still works like it did when Samantha was little. You remember Samantha, right? My daughter? You took her away from me." Dr. Malcolm was starting to get angry as he spoke. He edged closer and closer to Spencer's face until he was inches away and practically spitting on him as he spoke. "You took my daughter, my practice, my esteemed place in the community. My lawyer managed to get me out of the charges laid against me, but the damage was done. The community ostracized me. I lost my psychology license. I can't even see my daughter anymore – Samantha's doctors won't let me. They say it upsets her too much. It's all your fault. Everything is because of you and that meddling team of yours. And you are going to pay!" Dr. Malcolm had clearly become unhinged in the past couple of years. Spencer couldn't move away when Dr. Malcolm picked up the electrodes and attached them to each side of Reid's head. He then pulled out Velcro straps and began attaching Reid's chest and arms to the chair. Reid knew that, drugs or no drugs, electric shock would force him to fall out of the chair if he wasn't strapped to it. Lastly, Dr. Malcolm put a cloth in his mouth. _So I don't bite off my own tongue. How thoughtful of him,_ Reid thought.

"Of course, it's not all your fault. Your entire team is to blame. So let's conference them in so they can join our group therapy session, shall we?" Dr. Malcolm walked behind Reid again and reappeared with a laptop and a folding table to set it on. Malcolm set it up so that Reid was in centre frame on the webcam. "Perfect. Let's see what your team is up to, shall we?"

 _Please don't make them watch this,_ Reid silently begged. He was helpless to do anything to stop it though. He couldn't even move.


	5. Chapter 5

Garcia was furiously searching traffic photos, but she had come up with nothing suspicious so far. She didn't even know what she was looking for at this point. But she wasn't willing to give up. She would do whatever it took to get Reid home safely. They all would.

As Garcia pulled up another photo, she received an email notification from an unknown sender. Going to her inbox, she saw the subject line. _You can only watch._ Her heart sunk into her stomach. "Guys. I just got an email from the ubsub." The entire team dropped what they were doing and gathered behind her as Garcia opened the email. All it contained was a link.

"Click it, Penelope." Hotch ordered. He wasn't sure he wanted to see what was on the other side of the link, but they had to know.

As soon as Garcia clicked the link, a video popped up on the screen. It was of Reid. He was still sitting in the wooden chair as in the photo. Some sort of wiring came out of two pads attached to either side of his head. The wires led to offscreen. Reid appeared to be strapped to the chair now, unlike in the photo they had received earlier. He had a cloth in his mouth, presumably acting as a gag. Reid was unmoving, except for his eyes. They were open and staring at the screen. He blinked infrequently, but otherwise he didn't move. The fear in his eyes was apparent. Garcia let out an involuntary gasp when she saw him. She quickly collected herself and started typing on her second computer. "Sir, this is live. And our webcam is connected as well… they can see and hear us."

The team immediately shifted their body language. When they saw Reid pop up on the screen, looks of worry filled the room. Now with the knowledge that Reid and the unsub were watching them, they all knew they needed to look in control.

"Reid? Are you okay? Reid it's Hotch. Nod your head if you can hear me," Hotch requested. Reid just blinked and continued to stare at the screen.

Suddenly a voice from offscreen came through the speakers. "Dr. Reid can hear you. But I'm afraid he's unable to answer you at the moment." The man laughed.

"Why can't he answer me?" Hotch asked. He was worried about what had been done to Reid and was trying to get any information he could from the unsub. Garcia, meanwhile, was attempting to trace the video stream.

"Let's just say that Dr. Reid Is a little inhibited at the moment." The man laughed again. He seemed to find the whole situation rather humourous. He was the only one who did. "You see, Reid needs to be taught a lesson. You all do. So let's get started, shall we? Oh, and miss Garcia, you can stop trying to trace my location from the video stream. You won't be able to." The man laughed again.

"Tell me what you want. I'm sure we can work something out in exchange for the safe return of my agent," Hotch said.

"What I want, you can't give me. I want this meddling little good-for-nothing 'doctor' to have never entered my life. I want your team to have never destroyed everything I had built. You can't give me that. So you'll just have to suffer the consequences. I had to watch as my life fell apart around me, and now you'll have to watch as Dr. Reid here is punished for what he did."

Hotch's stoic expression faltered. He couldn't keep up the charade of not caring at the moment. "Please, don't harm him." He opened his mouth to continue to speak, but at that moment, a buzzing sound rang out and Reid began to convulse.

The team watched, unable to do anything as their friend was being shocked. A tear ran down Garcia's face and Morgan put both hands on her shoulders. She reached up and grabbed his hands as they silently tried to give each other strength. JJ looked away, planting her face into Rossi's shoulder. He put a comforting arm around her, a look of sorrow on his face as he watched the screen. Emily had both hands to her mouth, trying to hold in a sob. Hotch forced himself not to look away from the screen. If Reid could endure this, he could watch it. He had to.

"Stop," Hotch pleaded to the unknown man. "Please, stop. That's enough. You'll kill him!" Hotch's last words came out as a yell. Reid continued to convulse, sobs involuntarily coming through the cloth in his mouth. Reid's body shook uncontrollably as the electric current ran through his body.

After what seemed like far too long, Reid became still as the electricity was turned off. His eyes were closed, but the team could see his chest rising and falling. He was still breathing. For now.

"I hope you enjoyed the show, agents. I'll be in touch again real soon." The voice on the other side of the screen said. The computer screen went black as the video stream ended.

* * *

Reid watched as Dr. Malcolm stepped between him and the laptop and began typing. He stepped out of the frame as he pressed the last button, after which the webcam light turned on and Reid's team popped up. _They look worried,_ Reid thought. Of course they did. This wasn't the first time they would be forced to watch Reid from the other side of a video stream. _I really do have a knack for getting into trouble. I wonder what the odds are of all of these situations happening to a single person? If I had the time, I could probably calculate it._ Snapping his thoughts back to what was happening, Reid took a moment to study each of his colleagues' faces. He missed them. He wished they were here right now. He knew he had to be strong for them. _Show no fear,_ Reid thought to himself. Easier said than done.

Garcia was the first to speak on the other side of the video, "Sir, this is live. And our webcam is connected as well… they can see and hear us." Reid noticed the entire team attempt to collect themselves. _That's good. Don't show him fear. Don't give him what he wants._ Reid knew this couldn't be easy for his team.

Hotch was next to break the silence. "Reid? Are you okay? Reid it's Hotch. Nod your head if you can hear me." Reid heard a calmness in Hotch's voice that he tried to hold on to. _I would if I could, Hotch. I'm sorry._ Reid hoped the team would notice his inability to move. The longer this video continued, the more obvious that would hopefully become. It was a signature that the team could trace back to Dr. Malcolm. Reid wished he had some way to communicate with his team. They were right there, and if he could just open his mouth, he could probably tell them everything they needed to find them. But he was helpless to do so, even if he didn't have a gag in his mouth. Reid could do nothing but listen to the exchange happening between his boss and the man beside him.

"Dr. Reid can hear you. But I'm afraid he's unable to answer you at the moment," Dr. Malcolm said with a laugh.

"Why can't he answer me?" Hotch asked. Reid was sure he could hear typing in the background. _Garcia must be trying to trace the video feed. If anyone can do it, she can._

"Let's just say that Dr. Reid Is a little inhibited at the moment." Another laugh from Dr. Malcolm. He hoped the team heard the way his captor emphasized the word 'inhibited.' Dr. Malcolm just dropped a big clue that Reid hoped the team was able to pick up. "You see, Reid needs to be taught a lesson. You all do. So let's get started, shall we. Oh, and miss Garcia, you can stop trying to trace my location from the video stream. You won't be able to." The small glimmer of hope Reid had that Garcia would be able to track him vanished. _Don't give up hope. They will find you. They always do. You just need to hold on._ Reid could feel the panic start to rise in him. He knew he was about to be in a world of pain.

"Tell me what you want. I'm sure we can work something out in exchange for the safe return of my agent," Hotch said. _How is Hotch always able to keep his cool even in tense situations?_ Reid used the strength in Hotch's voice to bolster his own.

Malcolm was becoming angry at this point. "What I want, you can't give me. I want this meddling little good-for-nothing 'doctor' to have never entered my life. I want your team to have never destroyed everything I had built. You can't give me that. So you'll just have to suffer the consequences. I had to watch as my life fell apart around me, and now you'll have to watch as Dr. Reid here is punished for what he did." _They aren't going to be able to talk him out of doing this._ Reid knew there was no way out of what was going to happen. _I just wish they didn't have to watch._

"Please, don't harm him." Reid could hear a hint of desperation in Hotch's voice. Then, Reid's entire world was dominated by pain. His body, previously unable to move, convulsed involuntarily. He wasn't able to think. Pain throughout his whole body continued for what seemed like an endless amount of time.

Reid couldn't see the faces of his friends anymore, though he was sure they were still right in front of him. His eyes were closed and all he could focus on was the pain he was in. It felt like he was being burned from the inside out. He heard Hotch's voice, but it sounded further away this time, like it was coming from a tunnel. "Stop. Please, stop. That's enough. You'll kill him!" Reid could feel the darkness coming. He passed out as the pain ceased and the electricity was turned off.


	6. Chapter 6

The BAU's conference room had never been so silent. The six FBI agents stared at the blank screen as if it would reveal that this was all just an elaborate hoax, if they just looked hard enough. Truth be told, they weren't really looking at the screen – they were all lost in their own thoughts.

Garcia was the first to break the silence. Her voice was shaky. "He's okay right? I mean, he's going to be okay? He is still breathing, so that means that he's going to be fine, right?" Garcia turned to look up at Morgan who was still standing behind her. As she looked up at him, she could tell that he had moved past his anger and now just looked sad.

"Ya baby girl, he's going to be fine, you'll see." Morgan squeezed one of Garcia's hands and gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Reid's strong. He's going to make it through this. He'll be back here telling us his not-so-fun facts before you know it."

Hotch, who had been deep in thought, snapped back into his role as team leader. "Garcia, were you able to get a location from the video?"

"I'm afraid not sir. He was routing it through a bunch of different proxy servers. With some time, I might be able to unravel the video's path. I won't know until I get into it. Which I'm going to do, right now." Garcia immediately turned back to her screens and started typing. There was a determined expression on her face and Aaron knew that she would do anything in her power to find Reid.

JJ, who had seemed to be in her own world for the last few minutes, looked around the room at the remaining profilers. She set her hand on the large stack of manila folders sitting in front of her. "Okay, I have made a pile of possible suspects who could have a vendetta against Reid or this team. But the list is too long. What did we learn from that video that will help us narrow it down?"

Emily jumped in, glad to be able to contribute something that might help them find Reid. "The unsub was more or less calm and in control. He almost seemed scripted. And he clearly came into this with a plan. He's been working towards this for a while. I think we can eliminate any cases that happened very recently."

Hotch had some ideas of his own to throw into the mix. "He said that we had destroyed everything that he had built. Look at men who lost their families, homes, or jobs after our involvement in a case. This is a man who believes, without a doubt, that our involvement in the case ruined his life."

Morgan was next to throw in his two cents. "I think Reid is this guy's main focus. He called Reid 'meddling' and said he needed to be punished for what he did. He wants us all to suffer, but Reid most of all. Look at cases where Reid had more contact with the families or loved ones than the rest of us."

"Ok. This helps. I'll start sorting through these cases again," JJ said.

Hotch chimed in. "I want everybody to take a stack of files. There's not much more that the rest of us can do right now anyway. We need to find the identity of our unsub quickly. I'd like to find Reid before another video link is sent to us."

Rossi nodded in agreement. "I don't think we are going to be able to negotiate with this unsub. He has an image in his mind of how he wants this to go. He has probably plotted out everything that he is planning to do. And from the other side of a computer screen, there's very little we can do to or say that will cause him to deviate. We are going to have to find him and disrupt him before he carries out his endgame." Rossi knew that the endgame was likely to be Reid's death, but he didn't think verbalizing that would be productive. The team needed to focus on figuring out who the unsub was, not on what could happen if they failed to find their missing friend.

* * *

 _Ow._ He had an IQ of 187, and 'ow' was the best word Reid could think of to describe how he hurt. Reid kept his eyes closed for the time being, trying to assess the damage before bringing himself back in to the real world. He could feel that he had burns where the electrodes had been placed. The pain from them radiated out in waves. The electrodes had thankfully been removed, giving Reid a vague assurance that he wouldn't be subjected to shock therapy again in the immediate future.

Reid's entire body ached, as if he had overworked every muscle in his body. _That's exactly what happened,_ Reid knew. He strained to recall what he could about the effects of electroshock therapy. These days it was called 'electroconvulsive therapy' but Reid highly doubted that what he had just experienced was conducted as ECT normally was. For one thing, the patient was normally placed under general anesthesia, not completely awake as he had been. The therapy was most commonly used to treat severe depression. The most common side effects were confusion and memory loss. He didn't think he was suffering from either of those. He unfortunately remembered everything about his abduction. Reid noted that his thought processes seemed a little slower than normal, though that could be attributed to a possible concussion or the general stress of the situation he found himself in.

Reid could no longer delay the inevitable. He slowly opened his eyes. The drugs made it difficult, but he managed. The first thing he noticed was that it was now fully daylight outside. At the angle that he sat, all he could see through the windows was the sky, blue and cloudless. _Not that it would really help if I could see more,_ he thought bitterly. Reid tried to move his hands… his feet… his head… anything. He couldn't move a muscle. It was infuriating. He noted that the restraints were gone, and he couldn't see the tray that held the electroshock machine. The laptop still sat in front of him on the folding table, though it was now closed. His cell phone and gun sat on either side of the computer. It was a taunt, he knew. The items he needed to save himself were so close, yet they might as well be on the other side of the country for all the use they did him in his current state. As an additional taunt, the door at the top of the stairs remained open. Reid's inability to move his body was the only thing that confined him to this place.

In his peripheral vision, Reid saw that an IV was hooked up beside him, and the line went into his arm. _Just like Samantha used to do with the women she treated as dolls._ He suspected that the line was feeding him more drugs, and fluids so he wouldn't dehydrate. _How long is Dr. Malcolm planning on holding me here?_ Reid wondered. He suspected that the man knew exactly how he wanted this to play out, and hoped that the timeline Dr. Malcolm had in mind left sufficient time for his team to find them. As much as he wanted out of here now, he knew that the team needed as much time as they could get. So Reid would have to play the waiting game.

Reid listened but no sounds could be heard, from either upstairs or outside. The cement walls and thick windows likely prevented much sound from getting in or out. Reid wondered where Dr. Malcolm could be. It didn't sound like anyone else was in the house. All Reid could do was sit and wait for his abductor to come back.


	7. Chapter 7

Reid was going a bit stir crazy, being left alone for such a long period of time with no stimulation and no ability to move. It felt as though it had been days since Malcolm's last visit, but his brain told him that couldn't be the case. He could see that it was getting close to dusk now. _Sunset is at about 8:16 p.m., assuming I'm still in the D.C. area. I was taken around 2 a.m. this morning. So I've been here for approximately 18 hours. Hopefully the team is getting close._ Reid knew that every case was different. Sometimes they were able to solve a case within a day, and sometimes it took much longer. Reid hoped for the former in this instance, but knew in the back of his mind that it wouldn't be that easy. _It never is though. Not for me anyway._

Reid had spent most of his imprisonment attempting to profile his captor. His conclusion was unsettling. Reid's analysis concluded that Dr. Malcolm would stop at nothing to enact his revenge. The man was organized and likely had planned this entire abduction for quite some time. While Reid couldn't be sure of what exactly the man had in mind for him, he was certain that his team would be forced to watch progressively more painful videos of Reid. The thought of this made Reid feel sick. He didn't want to be the source of pain for his team. _Not again._

Reid was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps near the top of the stairs, and it wasn't long before Dr. Malcolm came into view as he made his way into the basement. He was wearing the same clothes as before, minus the white jacket. Malcolm had a neutral expression on his face that alarmed Reid. It was as if this was just any other day for him. What concerned Reid more were the pair of scissors and roll of black duct tape the man held in his hands.

Malcolm smiled at Reid as he reached the bottom of the stairs. It was not a friendly smile, but a sadistic one. Reid could tell that this man was looking forward to hurting Reid again.

Reid could feel his heart rate rise as the man grew closer to him, but Malcolm walked past to what Reid could only assume was the man's staging area. As it was behind Reid, he was unable to see what exactly was happening, but he heard Malcolm set something down, and then heard a rustle of material.

When Dr. Malcolm re-emerged into Reid's field of vision, Reid could see that he now wore a black ski mask. It was an odd look for the older man, what with the rest of his outfit looking fairly professional. The roll of tape Malcolm previously held was nowhere to be seen, but the scissors were still in his hands, and he was fiddling with them in a menacing manner.

"I don't want your friends to figure out who I am. Not quite yet," Dr. Malcolm offered in explanation to Reid's unasked question about the mask.

 _Hopefully they already have figured it out,_ Reid thought. He knew that his team needed that crucial information if they had any chance of finding him. _If not, hopefully there will be something telling in the next video._ Reid had no doubt that such a video stream was about to take place.

As if Dr. Malcolm could tell what Reid was thinking, he walked to the laptop, opened it up, and began typing on it. It was only a few moments before Malcolm seemed satisfied that everything was ready to go. He stood off to the side of the computer, and Reid could see his disheveled self now visible on the screen. The webcam was on, and his team was about to be sent another live video stream.

Malcolm frowned at the image on the screen, and moved the entire table the computer was on to the left a few feet. He stepped back again and nodded to himself. He seemed to be more satisfied with this position of the camera, that caught Reid somewhere between a frontal and profile angle. _So whatever he's going to do, he'll be standing in front of me. And he doesn't want to block the team's view._

Reid's breathing was now quite fast. He hated the prospect of this being broadcast to his friends almost more than the prospect of being tortured. He knew that, if it weren't for the drugs, he would be trembling. Infuriating as it was to not be able to move, a small part of him thought maybe it was better for the team this way. They wouldn't have to see him shake, flinch, or recoil in response to whatever Malcolm was about to do. _I'll look less afraid. Maybe that will make it easier for them to watch._ Reid knew that he was holding on to the faintest of silver linings here, but that was a good sign. It meant he had hope.

Malcolm had set down the scissors as he worked on the computer, but Reid could see they were back in his hands once more. Reid tried not to think about all of the gruesome things a sadistic man could do with a pair of scissors, but his eidetic memory couldn't help but recall the images of all of the crimes he had seen involving scissors. Reid tried to push them aside and focus his mind on adding to his profile of Dr. Malcolm. It gave him a small sense of control to try to profile this man like he had done with so many past unsubs. He needed that right now, because nothing else was within his control.

"Are you ready Spencer? I think it's about time we get your friends back on the screen. They must be worried sick about you." Dr. Malcolm said with an obvious taunt in his voice. _He enjoys asking me questions, knowing that I can't answer. It gives him a sense of superiority over me,_ Reid profiled in his mind. _That's it Reid, just focus on the profile and you just might get through this._

Dr. Malcolm walked over to the computer. With a press of a button, he had sent an email. They didn't have long to wait before the team would pop up on the screen. Reid knew that, unless they had a lead, they would all be in the office and would not hesitate to accept the video link. If for no other reason than to assure themselves that Reid was still alive. _I'm still here. And hopefully will still be when this video ends._ Reid swallowed hard and tried to prepare himself for was was to come.

* * *

"I never before realized how many people we talk to on each of our cases," Rossi groaned as he tossed another case file into the 'maybe' pile. They had been at this for hours now. The profilers knew that this was taking far too long, and they still didn't have enough of a profile to narrow down the suspect pool to a reasonable level. _There's something familiar about this unsub, I just can't put my finger on it._ It was a sensation that had been plaguing Rossi since watching the video. Sighing, Rossi picked up the next file and started looking through it.

"Tell me about it. I mean, we leave our fair share of angry people behind after our cases. But who could Reid have pissed off this bad? The kid has the best temperament of any of us," Morgan tossed aside the case file he had been reading through. _I'm the one who always loses my cool, not Reid. Why is this happening to him instead of me?_

"I don't know. You'd be surprised," Rossi countered, the faintest of smiles reaching his lips. "Reid has his moments." Rossi thought back to a case a couple of years ago, and something clicked in his mind. _How could I not have seen it before?_

Rossi stood, catching the attention of the rest of the profilers. "I need to see the video clip again. I have a hunch that I need to confirm."

Garcia immediately pulled up the recorded video onto the large screen in the room. "Here it is. If you don't mind, I'm going to step out. I don't think I can watch this again." She looked to Hotch for approval.

Hotch nodded his permission for Garcia to leave the room. As soon as she was gone, he pressed play on the video. The five profilers watched the short clip of their friend. Even knowing what was going to happen, it was still difficult to watch.

When the video ended, Hotch met Rossi's gaze. "Dave, did you get what you were looking for?" There was a desperate hope in his voice.

Rossi cleared his throat. "Do you remember a case we worked a couple of years ago, in Atlantic City? There was a woman named Samantha who was turning her victims into dolls."

Emily, JJ, Morgan and Hotch all nodded, acknowledging that they remembered the case.

"Reid and I went to her father's office to try to get Samantha's location out of him. Reid was pretty confrontational with the guy - he had him pegged as a child molester in two minutes flat and laid it all out for the guy right there in front of him. It was a sight to be seen." Rossi explained.

"So you think that Samantha's father is the unsub?" Prentiss questioned.

"After re-watching that video clip, I'm pretty sure of it. His voice sounded familiar but I couldn't place it until now. The way he called Reid 'doctor' with such distain – he spoke the same way back then, as if he didn't think Reid deserved the same title as himself. But the biggest piece of evidence is what he did to Reid." Rossi paused for a moment as he remembered Reid's convulsing body on the video.

JJ had found the case Rossi was referring to as he had been talking. File in hand, she spoke. "Dr. Arthur Malcolm used electroshock therapy on his daughter Samantha when she was ten years old," JJ read, realizing the connection Rossi was getting at.

"Exactly. Dr. Malcolm has to be our guy. It all fits," Rossi concluded. He wished he had been wrong, but knew in his heart that the man holding Reid was Samantha's father. _The anger in his eyes when he looked at Reid two years ago – I can only imagine what that rage has morphed into since then, if he really blames Reid for losing everything he had._

Hotch thought back to the video and on what had been bothering him since the first time he had seen it. Reid's behavior had been off, and now he thought he knew why. "JJ, what did Samantha use on her victims to make them into dolls?" he questioned.

"It says here that she used a battery of neural inhibitors to keep them physically immobile while remaining conscious." JJ grimaced as she thought back on it.

That was unfortunately just what Hotch had thought. He pinched the bridge of his nose in a vain attempt to stave off his growing headache. "We never figured out how Samantha was getting her hands on all of those drugs, but now I think she was getting them from her father."

Prentiss looked confused. "What does that have to do with Reid?" She asked, though she suspected she wouldn't like the answer.

Hotch sighed and wiped his face in exhaustion and discomfort in what he had just realized. "Last time Reid was in this situation with Hankel, he used the videos to try to communicate with us. But Dr. Malcolm said that Reid couldn't answer me because he was 'inhibited,' and now I think he was being literal. I think he's keeping Reid on the same drugs as Samantha kept her dolls." Hotch brought a hand to his eyes. If what he just said was true, Reid was trapped in his own body. That was a torture all its own.

At that moment, Garcia re-emerged into the conference room with a tea in her hand. She could sense from the tension in the room and the grave expressions on her friend's faces, that something had happened while she was away. "What's going on?"

Morgan looked at Garcia. "Baby girl, find everything you can on Dr. Arthur Malcolm from Atlantic City. We think he's our unsub."

Garcia got immediately to typing. "I'll have that information for you in two shakes of a lamb's tail." Just as she was about to pull up Dr. Malcolm's file, something else happened on her screen that caused her to pause. "Sir, I have another email from the unsub," Garcia said, eyes wide and just barely holding in a sob.

"What does it say, Penelope?" Hotch asked.

"It's another link. And the subject just says, 'Revenge.'"


	8. Chapter 8

**Getting lots of writing done today, so you guys get two of my longest chapters in the same day!**

 **Thank you for all the reviews - they truly inspire me to keep writing. I'm glad most of you seem to be really enjoying the story! I love feedback, whether positive or constructive - it's all very appreciated!**

 **I have lots more in store for Reid, so stay tuned!**

* * *

Hotch needed a few seconds to gather his thoughts before they clicked the link. They hadn't had time to add their new information to the profile of Reid's captor. They hadn't even had time to look the man up. But he knew that they couldn't wait long to click that link, so they were going to have to go in blind. Hotch sighed and addressed his team.

"I will be the only person to speak while we are on video, understood?" The stern look on his face elicited immediate nods from the entire team.

Hotch continued. "Good. We are going to act as if we haven't discovered the identity of Dr. Malcolm. The last thing that we need is for him to panic or to try to move Reid before we get a chance to check his addresses. With any luck, he's holding Reid on a property he owns and we'll be able to take him by surprise." Again, Hotch received nods from his team. They all agreed with his plan, and were too anxious and nervous to see Reid on the screen in a few short seconds to argue anyway.

Aaron softened his expression, showing for a brief moment the worry that he saw reflected on everyone else's faces. "We need to be strong for Reid. He's going to be looking to us and he needs to see our determination to find him. We can help him by keeping his hopes up. Hanging on to the hope that we will find him soon is what going to get him through this." _I just pray that we don't let him down._

Aaron turned to Garcia. "Penelope, if you want to excuse yourself from the room for this, I would understand." He knew that her high sense of empathy made the gruesome images they dealt with everyday very difficult for her to look at. He wasn't sure that the tech analyst had it in her for another round of Reid's suffering. Though come to think of it, he wasn't sure any of his team did.

"Thank you sir, but I need to stay. I'm going to try a new strategy to track the video feed this time, but I need to be in the room to monitor it. Besides, I need to be here for Reid. He needs all of us right now, like you said." Garcia had a determination to her that Hotch had seen before. Her level of empathy was perhaps rivalled only by her sense of protectiveness. She was like a mama bear - no one hurt her family and got away with it.

"Alright then, if everyone is ready, go ahead and click the link Garcia." Hotch couldn't help but feel that by clicking the link, they were doing exactly what Dr. Malcolm wanted them to do. But until they had more information, they had no choice. It seemed better to click the link and know what was happening to Reid, than to ignore it and potentially set Malcolm off even worse.

Hotch wasn't a particularly religious person, but in that moment he sent a silent prayer for Reid's safe return to them.

* * *

Reid saw the video feed come to life and his team popped up on the screen. While the computer wasn't directly in front of him anymore, he could still shift his glance enough to get a good look at them.

Garcia was dead center, sitting down. She had a sad smile on her face that he knew was for him. She was not great at concealing her emotions - they always shone through. He noticed that she wasn't typing away this time. He wasn't sure if that was because she knew tracing the video was pointless, or if she was tracking in a more covert manner so as not to set off Dr. Malcolm. He hoped it was the latter, but regardless knew that the tech genius was doing everything in her power to find him. They all were - he didn't doubt that for one second.

Next his gaze went to JJ. She had put her hair up into a ponytail since the last video. That was a look she usually reserved for the field. He suspected that she put it up so she would have no distractions during this case. And so she would be ready to go as soon as they had a lead. That was a reassuring thought to Reid, like maybe they were getting close to finding him. Reid felt calmer as he looked into JJ's eyes. He could see strength and determination radiating out of her and it helped him to strengthen his own resolve.

Emily was standing beside JJ. Her poker face was on point as always, but he caught just a flicker of a smile directed his way. Reid wanted nothing more than to smile back at her. Emily and Reid had a special friendship that he didn't have with anyone else. He loved that the rest of the team treated him like a little brother, since he didn't exactly have a normal family situation growing up. But sometimes they treated him like he was a child. Emily always treated him like the adult he was, and saw him as her equal.

Reid looked to Rossi next. He was standing near the back of the group. If he didn't know any better, Reid would think that the current situation wasn't affecting the man at all. But Reid knew Rossi had an amazing ability to manage his micro-expressions far better than anyone else on the team. Reid was thankful that Rossi was able to keep his expression strong. He acted as the rock for the rest of the team, and they probably needed it right about now. When David Rossi started to panic, that's when you knew the situation is dire – so Reid drew assurance from Rossi's composure.

Morgan was standing beside Garcia with his arms crossed. A stranger might think that Morgan was pissed off, but Reid knew the crinkle in his forehead was Morgan's attempt to conceal his worry. Morgan acted like the toughest person in the room, but Reid knew it was taking everything in his power to hold it together. The only way he could get through these personal cases was to close himself off. But Reid knew that his worry also translated to determination. Derek Morgan wouldn't rest until Reid was safe and the man responsible was apprehended. Reid would hate to be Dr. Malcolm if Morgan got his hands on him, that's for sure.

Last but not least, Reid's eyes made their way to Aaron Hotchner. The man was very good at keeping a straight face. But Reid could see that there were many emotions struggling to stay concealed behind the man's eyes. Reid knew that Hotch cared deeply for every person on his team, and took personal responsibility for keeping them safe. Hotch had two sides to his personality – the serious, all business side he presented when they were on a case; and the caring father figure with a sense of humor that they got to see sometimes outside of work. Reid knew that, if he got through this, Hotch would be by his side to help him recover from this traumatic experience. _Not if – when. I have to think positively and stay strong for the team._

Reid's thoughts were pulled away from his team when Malcolm made himself known. "Shall we get started?" Reid could only see Dr. Malcolm's eyes under the mask, but he was quite certain that there was a smile on his face as he held up the scissors for Reid and the webcam to see.

"You don't have to do this. Let us help you. Return Reid to us without any further harm done to him, and we will make sure that the DA knows you cooperated with us," Hotch tried to reason. He knew it wasn't likely to work, but he would say whatever he could to try to attract the man's attention to the webcam and away from Reid, who sat helpless and unable to move despite the lack of physical bonds.

"HA! That's what Rossi said last time, but he didn't follow through," Malcolm exclaimed. Immediately, his eyes went wide and then angry behind his mask. Clearly he had slipped up, revealing information that could lead to his identification if the team hadn't already found it out.

Reid let out a deep breath of relief. If the team didn't know who the unsub was already, that piece of information all but assured that they would after this video. _So at least something positive will come of this_ , Reid thought.

Reid's moment of relief was quickly gone when Malcolm moved towards him with the scissors. He squeezed his eyes shut, unable to do anything else to try to defend against the psychotic man approaching him with a sharp object.

Reid opened his eyes a moment later when he realized that no sharp pain was befalling him. Instead, Reid watched as Dr. Malcolm took the scissors to the noose of Reid's tie and threw it to the ground. He made short work of removing Reid's sweater vest and buttoned top as well. Dr. Malcolm's frustration for revealing unwanted information manifested itself in the rough way he handled Reid as he cut off his top. Reid was lucky the man hadn't cut him in the process. When he was done, Dr. Malcolm dropped the scissors to the floor and admired his handiwork.

Reid had never felt so exposed in his life. He sat in the chair shirtless, unable to move, and completely at the mercy of the revenge-seeking man in front of him. If that wasn't bad enough, Reid's entire team was going to watch what was about to unfold. _Please let me keep the rest of my clothes on._ While Reid knew that Dr. Malcolm was a child molester, he hadn't previously considered the possibility of this going where he now desperately hoped it wouldn't. Reid didn't fit the type of Malcolm's preferred victims – prepubescent females. Reid kept his eyes locked on Malcolm, not daring to look at the screen in case his team's strength was waning. He didn't think he could keep it together if he saw tears from his friends right now.

Reid registered that Hotch was still talking. He was asking questions and trying to catch Dr. Malcolm's attention, but the man didn't seem like he even heard Hotch. If he did, he was ignoring it.

Reid inwardly cringed at Dr. Malcolm's next action, which was to remove Reid's belt. He made all of the noise he could in protest – which amounted to a muffled moan through his immobile lips. Reid knew it sounded pathetic, but he didn't like where this situation looked like it was heading, and was very close to losing it completely.

Dr. Malcolm laughed at Reid's pitiful protest. "Don't worry Dr. Reid. You're not my type." _Thank God,_ Reid thought. He was sure he heard several of his teammates let out a breath of relief as well.

"Now I want you to remember, Dr. Reid, that you brought this on yourself. You ruined my life. This is just payback for what you did to me," Dr. Malcolm said, anger seeping into his voice.

Reid could do nothing to prepare himself for the first blow as it took him my surprise. Dr. Malcolm had whipped Reid with his own belt, and the impact caused Reid to whimper as the pain registered in his abdomen. It was excruciating. He closed his eyes, the only action he could take against the agony. He never thought he would long for the ability to flinch.

Reid could hear a gasp from one of his female teammates, and Hotch yelling. But Malcolm ignored the video stream, lost in his own sadistic fantasy he was playing out. He hit Reid again and again. Reid couldn't help but sob at each blow, wishing that he was strong enough to keep his reactions internalized. He could feel tears begin to run down his cheeks. Reid wanted nothing more than for this punishment to stop, and for his team to not have to see the pain he was in.

The blows continued to crash down on him, one after another. They landed all over his torso and arms. He had lost count of the amount of hits he had taken, and just closed his eyes and silently prayed for the attack to stop. He tried to listen for his friend's voices, but Hotch had stopped trying to talk the man out of the attack. The entire team was silent. The only sounds to be heard were the impact noise of the belt, Reid's whimpers in response, and Dr. Malcolm's grunts as he put his full effort into the attack. Perhaps Hotch thought that the reaction of the team was what the man was after, and didn't want to give that to him.

Dr. Malcolm sounded like he was getting a little winded from the effort he was putting into the blows he dealt. Eventually the hits stopped, and Reid heard the belt hit the ground. He opened his eyes to see Dr. Malcolm staring at him _,_ taking in the damage he had inflicted. Not wanting to meet the man's eyes, Reid stole a glance to the computer screen.

He looked awful. His previously pale skin had too many red marks to count. The belt had broken the skin in several spots and he was bleeding. Tear tracks were visible down his face and he could do nothing to wipe them away.

Reid turned his attention to his friends, most of whom had their hands over their mouths in a subconscious effort to keep silent and not cry out. Reid did his very best to convey with his eyes that he was okay. He wasn't sure if he believed that himself, but he needed his team to believe it.

Reid's eyes snapped back to Dr. Malcolm, but the man was moving out of view, back to where Reid believed was his staging area. He reappeared seconds later with the black duct tape in his hands.

Reid was confused, unable to surmise what the man's plan for the tape might be. Ordinarily he'd assume the man was going to restrain him, but the drugs were already accomplishing that quite well.

"I don't think you've had enough taken away from you yet, Dr. Reid. Not as much as I have. So I'm taking away the one thing you have left. Then maybe you'll understand how I felt." With that, Dr. Malcolm began pulling the end of the tape loose.

Reid didn't realize what Malcolm meant until he began wrapping the tape around the top of Reid's head. Three times around was way more than sufficient. Dr. Malcolm had indeed taken away the one thing he had left – his sight. The tape blocked all light and he was immersed in complete and total darkness.

Reid heard Hotch cry out, "stop, wait," before a click indicated that the laptop lid had been closed and the connection lost. Retreating footsteps up the basement stairs meant that Reid was alone, in pain, unable to move, and now unable to see.


	9. Chapter 9

As soon as the video lost its connection, the team lost all of its carefully constructed composure. They seemed to each be falling apart in their own ways as they processed what they had just witnessed. Hotch was impressed and thankful to all of them for keeping it together until the feed ended, but now it was clear that they were all deeply affected by what they had just seen. Hotch could see unshed eyes and a look of shock in the face of more than one of this teammates.

Hotch addressed the room, using a gentle tone of voice. "I want everyone to take 10 minutes and get your thoughts together before we get back to working this case," he announced.

JJ nodded and headed for the door, thankful for the opportunity to escape to her office and shed a few tears in privacy. She was stopped before she hit the door though, by Morgan's voice.

"Did you not just see the same video I did? How can we take a break, knowing the state Reid is in? What if those 10 minutes are the 10 minutes we're too late to save him?" There was such anger radiating from Morgan's voice and body language, but Hotch knew better than to take it personally.

Hotch replied. "We all need a minute to process what we just saw. If we let our emotions compromise the investigation, we will lose far more than 10 minutes," Hotch reasoned. He still spoke gently, but there was a firmness to his voice. The look he gave Morgan expressed that this was the end of the discussion.

* * *

JJ was first out of the conference room, and she wasted no time in getting to her office. She closed and locked the door behind her, checking to ensure the blinds were already shut. She leaned her back against the door and let go of a long, ragged breath. Her breathing hitched on her next breath in and she let out the sob she had been holding in. A tear dropped from each eye, which she wiped away with her sleeves. Eyes staring at nothing, JJ slowly slid to the floor and sat there with her knees drawn to her chest, silently crying now.

 _Reid's going to be okay. He's going to make it,_ one half of her brain told her. _Focus on that. Stay positive._

But the other half of her brain chimed in. _He must be so scared. He's afraid of the dark and now he's all alone and blindfolded. What if we don't find him in time? What if we do, but the Spence we find isn't the same person?_ JJ let out another sob at this thought. Spence wasn't allowed to let this change him. He was too special of a person.

JJ spend five minutes on the floor like this before she stood and walked to her desk. She grabbed a tissue and began cleaning herself up. Looking in a hand mirror from her purse, she tightened her ponytail and wiped her eyes one last time.

 _Time to go get Reid back,_ JJ thought determinedly as she headed back to the conference room. _Time to go catch this bastard._

* * *

Morgan stormed out of the conference room and made a beeline to the elevator. If he was being forced to take a few minutes out, he knew what he could do with that time. Exiting the elevator on a different floor, he looked around the FBI's gym. Being the middle of the night, it was completely deserted.

Morgan marched up to the punching bag hanging from the ceiling, and wasted no time in landing a blow, first with his left fist and then his right.

 _That son of a bitch. I'm going to rip him apart when I get my hands on him,_ Morgan promised himself. He thought about Dr. Malcolm as he punched the bag over and over again. Letting his anger out felt good. He punched again as he thought of Reid, and what that bastard had done to him not moments ago.

Morgan continued to vent his feelings on the punching bag until his anger had all but dissipated. He stopped punching as he realized how much sadness was beneath that anger. _I can't fall apart. Not here, not now. If I do, I will be useless to help Reid,_ Morgan thought to himself. He stuffed down his growing desire to let the despair out. A few deep breaths, and he felt a little more in control.

Morgan thought about Reid again, replaying the video in his mind. When Malcolm had removed Reid's shirt and belt, Morgan had almost been sick thinking of what the psychologist might be getting ready to do to Reid; the same thing that had happened to Morgan as a teenager, and he hoped none of his team ever had to go through. _It didn't happen. Dr. Malcolm wasn't interested in him,_ Morgan had to remind himself. Of course, what DID happen to Reid was no walk in the park either. Morgan knew a beating like that would leave its scars on both Reid's body and mind.

 _I'm going to find you, kid. I promise you, I'll do whatever it takes to bring you home to us._

Morgan sighed. He needed to get back to work. It was the only way they were going to find him in time.

Stepping back on to the elevator, Morgan pressed the appropriate button to bring him back to the BAU.

* * *

Emily didn't have a private office, so she headed to the washroom to collect her thoughts. Clicking the lock shut behind her, she moved to the sink and turned on the tap. Her hands splashed water on her face several times before she turned the tap off and grabbed a paper towel. As she dried her face, she looked up into the mirror.

 _I look like hell. But nowhere near as bad as Reid looks,_ Emily thought to herself. She cared about the young genius deeply. Sure he was strange, but that was one of the things that endeared her to him. When she had first joined the team, Reid welcomed her with an open heart and she was forever grateful to him for that.

 _He's the best person I know. And we're going to get him back._ Emily refused to let the negative thoughts in. She refused to think about what would happen if Reid wasn't saved in time. _I can't think about that, because it will never happen. I'll find him. We'll find him - his team; his family._

With one last look in the mirror, Prentiss assured herself that she looked presentable before unlocking the washroom door and heading back out to the conference room.

* * *

Rossi made a beeline for his own office as soon as Hotch had suggested it. He needed a few minutes alone to collect his thoughts. Slamming the door behind him, Rossi paced the room as thoughts swirled through his brain.

 _Is this my fault? I should have remembered Dr. Malcolm earlier. How could I have been so blind?_ Rossi beat himself up over not figuring this out sooner. He was the only one who had been with Reid that day two years ago. Reid had depended on Rossi to remember, and he had failed him. _I won't fail you again Reid. I'm going to find you; I promise you that._

He thought about what Dr. Malcolm had said in the video. 'That's what Rossi said last time.' _If I had kept up my end of the bargain, would Reid still be here with us?_ There was no way to know for sure, but Rossi suspected a deal with the DA wouldn't have changed anything for Dr. Malcolm. The man hadn't been convicted of his crimes anyway. _I'll make damn sure you are this time,_ Rossi thought to himself.

Realizing that several minutes had passed and he needed to get back to work, Rossi stopped pacing. He stood still in the middle of his office for a moment, and looked out the window towards the bullpen. His office looked straight out to where Reid's desk was. What Rossi wouldn't give to see Reid sitting there again.

Rossi sighed and regained his composure. He needed to be strong for the team, he knew.

He opened his office door and rejoined the team that was reconvening in the conference room.

* * *

Hotch left the conference room and entered his office. He closed the blinds and sat at his desk. Alone for the first time since this has started, Hotch finally let his defenses down.

He leaned back in his chair, covered his eyes with one hand, and replayed in his mind the scene he had just watched. Reid had been so vulnerable, and must have been in so much pain by the end of the beating.

The look Reid had given the team at the end of the video had nearly broken Hotch. He had told his team to be strong for Reid, but it was clear that Reid was trying to be strong for them. Hotch's heart swelled with pride for the man that he considered practically family.

The full impact of the drugs Reid was on had hit Hotch as he watched that video as well. Reid couldn't even speak, let alone move. To be a profiler, held captive, with no ability to talk your way out of the situation, had to be incredibly frustrating. Reid's greatest asset was his mind, but if he couldn't communicate then it was useless to help him. Hotch realized that Reid was entirely dependent on them to find him. He wasn't going to be able to save himself this time. They couldn't let him down.

Abducted, drugged, and tortured by a madman. Hotch couldn't help but draw similarities between Reid's current situation, and the Tobias Hankel case several years ago. That case had almost broken Reid. Hotch just hoped this one didn't do the same.

Hotch hardened his resolve as he stood. He had been helpless to stop Dr. Malcolm from hurting Reid during the video broadcast, but he wasn't helpless now. They had a positive ID on the man, and with any luck would be able to track him down and end this before Dr. Malcolm decided Reid needed another 'punishment.'

Hotch popped two ibuprofen from his desk drawer, swallowing them dry, before standing and heading back to the conference room. Morgan was right – they didn't have any time to waste. Every minute lost now was another that Reid was left all alone and vulnerable. It was time to bring him home.

* * *

Garcia remained where she sat. Everyone else had left the room, but her eyes hadn't even left the screen yet. Her mind was replaying the video over and over again.

 _He's going to be okay. He's going to be okay. He' s going to be okay._ It was like a mantra for her. _He has to be._

Garcia had a lot of faith in their team, and was sure that they would find him. But she needed it to happen sooner rather than later. She was just keeping it together here, and she didn't know how much longer she could keep that up.

Garcia knew that it was up to her to find a location for Reid, and she didn't want to waste any more time. Knowing that the team needed information from her to move forward on the case, she placed her hands on the keyboard and finished doing what she was doing before the video link arrived. Garcia pulled everything she could find about Dr. Arthur Malcolm.

Garcia knew Hotch had wanted her to take a break, but working made her feel better. It gave her something to do. If she didn't keep working, she would fall apart. And if that happened, she would have a hell of a time putting herself back together again. She needed to be strong. _For Reid. Because he's being strong for us._

Garcia typed faster than she ever had before, compiling information and waiting for the rest of the team to come back to the room so they could catch this guy.


	10. Chapter 10

The team filed back into the conference room. When Hotch saw that Garcia was already hard at work, he allowed a small smile to grace his face. As much as he wanted the team to take a break, they also needed Reid's location as quickly as possible. He had kind of hoped that the tech analyst's coping mechanism would be to continue working, as he knew that the rest of the team had little to do until she found something they could go off of.

Looking around the room, Hotch noted that his friends were all looking a little better for the few minutes given to gather their thoughts. They at least looked a little less shaken and much more focused than they had been after watching the latest video.

As his teammates settled into their seats, Hotch asked Garcia the question that was on everyone's mind. "Garcia, were you able to track the video stream this time?"

Garcia shook her head. "I'm afraid not, sir. I'm still not finding a way to trace the source of the video. It's weird - whatever Dr. Malcolm is using to conceal the location, not even I can get past it."

Emily was next to ask information of the analyst. "Do you have an address for Malcolm?"

"See, that's where things get even weirder. He lost his house over a year ago. Since then, it looks like he moved from Atlantic City to Virginia, but never stayed at one address for very long. He left his last known address two months ago and seems to have dropped off the grid," Garcia concluded with a grave look on her face.

"Is there any other property that Malcolm might be attached to? Maybe something owned by family?" JJ piped in. She was desperately hopeful. The team's profiling skills combined with Garcia's technical prowess rarely failed to figure out a viable location for an unsub.

"He has a few cousins in the area but nothing jumps out," Garcia said, continuing to type. "And some of the addresses he previously listed seem to belong to friends of his. Altogether I have six addresses connected with Malcolm in some way that land within the area he could have taken Reid. And I've just send them to your phones."

Hotch took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the addresses. "Thank you Garcia. Ok everyone, we are going to divide and conquer. Morgan and Prentiss, you'll go to the first two addresses. Rossi and JJ, the next two are for you. I'm going to grab someone from the local PD to take the last two. Remember to stick together, and call for backup if you see anything suspicious. If Reid isn't at the addresses, try to get some information from the occupants about Dr. Malcolm. They might have some more leads for us to follow if none of these pan out." Hotch sincerely hoped that Reid would be found at one of the addresses on the list. He wasn't sure how much longer Reid could hold it together. He had looked in so much pain last time they had seen him.

* * *

It had been two hours since the team had moved out to check Dr. Malcolm's possible locations, and now they reconvened in the conference room. The last to return was Hotch. As he entered the conference room, he could feel the disappointment radiating from his team. They had come up empty. Not only did they not find Reid, but none of the people they talked to had any new information for them. It seemed as though Dr. Malcolm had fallen off the face of the earth, as far as his so-called friends were concerned. The short term rentals had no forwarding address or way to contact the man. Just like that, they were at another dead end.

Hotch hated to add to the team's dismay, but he had something he needed to share. He cleared his voice and everyone looked up to him where he stood at the table. "I got another photo texted to me about fifteen minutes ago." He passed his phone around the table. As each team member looked at it, a look of anguish washed across their faces.

It was another photo of Reid. He said in the chair, eyes still covered with tape. His upper body was still exposed, and showed many red markings from the beating he had taken. Where the belt had drawn blood, they could see dry trails of blood dripping down Reid's body. In his lap, the familiar white board sat. Written on it were the words 'tick tock' in red.

"Son of a bitch. He's taunting us." Morgan slammed his fist down on the table in frustration.

Hotch understood Morgan's anger, but knew that they had little time to waste on such emotions. "We need to focus and figure out what we're missing. There has to be something that we missed that can lead us to Reid's location."

"I noticed that in the first photo and video Reid wasn't connected to an IV. But he was in the second video, and still is in this photo. He likely didn't want to show the IV at first because he was afraid we would connect it to him. But as time has gone on, he's getting more confident that we won't find him. So he hasn't bothered to remove the IV. It must be feeding the drugs into Reid's system. It's the same method that Samantha used to keep her victims under control," Rossi remembered. "Can we track the drugs perhaps?"

Garcia immediately started typing furiously on her computer. "I will compile a list of drugs that could have this effect, and cross reference with health care professionals in the area that have been sourcing an unusual amount of it. I'll also check with local hospitals for thefts, in case Malcolm somehow stole it. Give me a few minutes here."

As Garcia worked on that lead, the rest of the team continued to add to the profile based on what they knew.

"This guy has used extensive forensic countermeasures to cover his tracks. He wants to make sure we don't find Reid, at least until he wants us to. I don't think he's holding Reid anywhere that is going to be easily traced back to him. He's smarter than that," Emily said.

JJ nodded and also added, "and because his plan has gone according to plan so far, he's getting overconfident. He's sure that we won't be able to stop him. If we can interrupt his plan somehow, it might cause him to make a mistake that will allow us to catch him."

Hotch shook his head in disagreement. "Or it could cause him to become enraged and direct that anger towards Reid. Malcolm needs to feel in control. If we take that away from him, he might kill Reid sooner than he's planning." Hotch knew they needed to tread carefully here. Malcolm clearly planned on killing Reid. But the team needed to stall that outcome long enough to find and save him.

Just then, JJ had an idea. "Hey Garcia, where is Samantha these days? Maybe she would have some idea of where Malcolm would keep Reid."

"Let's see. It says here that she was put in a psychiatric facility in New Jersey two years ago after we caught her. Then, just over a year ago, she was moved to Virginia. That move seems to correspond with Dr. Malcolm's move here as well."

"Can you look into her visitor's log and see if her father has been visiting her?" Rossi requested.

Garcia didn't need long to produce an answer. "It looks like he used to visit pretty regularly in New Jersey. And he continued his visits with Samantha at her current location until about six months ago. Then he was removed from Samantha's approved visitor's list, and her power of attorney changed as well."

"My guess is that her doctor figured out that Samantha's father was the source of her trauma, and stopped allowing him to see her. That could be our trigger," Rossi surmised. "Malcolm lost his daughter after losing everything else. So he started making a plan to get his revenge on Reid and the BAU."

Garcia, who was still working hastily at her computer, frowned. "Going back to the drugs. I think I've hit a dead end. I can't find any doctors here or in New Jersey that has gotten their hands on a large amount of neural inhibitors. And I don't see any reports of thefts either. He could be getting it on the black market. Or maybe he just stashed a bunch of it a few years ago when he was supplying it to Samantha."

"So we have a bunch of dead ends. That's just great," Morgan huffed. He was getting frustrated. They were getting nowhere.

The entire team was running off of fumes. They had barely gotten home the night before, after a long case, when they found out Reid was taken. And none of them had taken much of a break since then. They hadn't taken the time to eat anything substantial, and the only liquid anyone seemed to be drinking was ample amounts of coffee.

"Okay everyone. I know that you all want to find Reid as soon as possible. I want nothing more than that as well. But we are all dead on our feet, and our exhaustion is going to cause us to miss things. It's still dark for another four hours. I want half of you to go get some sleep for a couple of hours. The rest of us will stay and work, and then we can switch off. When the sun comes up, I want Rossi and JJ to go see Samantha. It's a long shot, but maybe she can give us a location we haven't come across yet." Hotch was prepared for an argument, especially from Morgan, but none came. Instead he saw defeated nods from the team. As much as they hated to admit it, Hotch was right. JJ and Rossi headed to their offices, and Hotch offered his office to Emily. Garcia, Morgan and Hotch continued to burn the midnight oil, hoping to come up with something they could use before the sun rose.

* * *

 **Sorry for the lack of Reid! I promise we will see him again soon!**


	11. Chapter 11

They hadn't had a lot of sleep, but as the sun rose the team was a little more alert and a lot more focused. Each of them had taken the time to lie down somewhere, and all managed to fall asleep at least for a small amount of time. Their bodies were so exhausted that sleep overcame their troubled minds that would normally have kept them from resting. JJ and Hotch had both taken the time to call their families and check in. Neither had the heart to tell their kids about what was happening to their Uncle Spencer. They hoped they wouldn't ever have to.

Hotch had continued to receive photos of Reid every two hours. Each had a different taunt written on the white board – 'catch me if you can' and 'time is running out' had been sent most recently. If it hadn't been for the different message and the darkening of the many bruises on Reid's body, the photos would have been identical. The tape blindfold and IV line remained in place, and Reid hadn't moved even an inch. Aaron wondered if Reid was keeping it together, or if he was starting to lose it. He could only imagine how maddening it must be to be blind and unable to move, completely at the whim of a psychotic man seeking revenge. Even if Dr. Malcolm did nothing more than to keep Reid like this, it was a terrible form of torture that the team needed to release Reid from as soon as possible. And Hotch knew in his heart that Dr. Malcolm wasn't finished yet.

Garcia had moved the coffee maker from the break room right into the conference room. The rest of the FBI office knew better than to complain when the BAU was working a case like this, and all just stayed well out of their way. As each agent at the round table sipped on a hot cup of coffee, they set a plan for the morning.

Hotch delegated tasks, though they already knew more or less what they were going to do. They let Hotch tell them anyway, knowing that the man needed the sense of control it gave him over the situation. "Okay, Dave and Emily, you are headed to the psychiatric facility to see Samantha. We've called ahead and her doctor will meet with you first. He will allow you to speak to Samantha as long as she doesn't get too agitated. So tread carefully." Rossi and Prentiss nodded and stood to exit the room. Samantha was their best lead and they didn't want to waste any time in getting to her.

"Morgan and JJ, I want you to take Malcolm's photo and re-canvass Reid's neighbours. Find out if they've seen him around the building. If he's been watching Reid it could explain how he knew where and when to grab him without being noticed. If the neighbours have seen him, maybe they will have a vehicle description we can use. I'm going to stay here with Garcia and try to find more leads. And someone needs to be here in case we receive another video." Hotch's voice went from in control talking about the plan, to a little shaky when he mentioned the possibility of another video. He sincerely hoped that they wouldn't receive another in the near future.

"Okay Hotch, we are heading out. Keep us in the loop if you get anything else," Morgan said as he and JJ stood. JJ was almost at the door when Morgan stopped beside Hotch and put a hand on his shoulder. No words were spoken, but the look between the two men said it all. They were reassuring each other that they would do whatever it takes to bring this case home. To bring Reid home. A nod from both ended the interaction and JJ and Morgan left.

"Okay Garcia, where are you with tracking the videos and photos?" Hotch asked.

"Every message gives me a little bit more data to work with. I've been able to narrow it down to here," Garcia said proudly as she pulled up a map. The circle was still quite a large area, but at least they were getting closer.

"And what does it look like if we overlap this map with the one from Malcolm's travel radius after the abduction?" Hotch wondered. Two pushes of a button and Garcia had a map with two overlapping circles on it. Reid had to be somewhere in the overlap area.

"It's still a large area sir, but it's all I have right now," Garcia frowned. The highlighted area had to cover over a hundred square miles, and included residential, commercial and rural areas.

"It's more than we had before Garcia. I know that you are doing the best you can. Don't worry, we're going to find him," Hotch said as be placed a comforting hand on Garcia's shoulder. "Reid is our expert on geographic profiles, but you and I are going to figure this out. Get me a print out of that map so I can start profiling the area. You are going to do your thing to find anything unusual that's happened in that area that could give us a lead to follow."

"Yes sir," Garcia said, already typing at inhuman speeds. She always felt better when she had a specific task to work on. As long as they were all still following leads, there was still hope. Her biggest fear was that the team would run out of leads and have nothing to do but wait for Reid's inevitable fate. As long as they were all still working, they weren't letting Reid down.

* * *

Reid was trying to keep his grip on reality, but it was getting more and more difficult as time went on. He was somewhat sure that he had retained consciousness since his eyesight had been taken away, but he couldn't be sure. Unable to move or see, he felt disconnected to the outside world - kind of like he was floating - and could very well have fallen out of consciousness without being aware of it.

Reid had tried a number of things to keep his mind focused on anything but the pain and fear he felt. He'd tried reading books in his mind, playing mental chess, even writing his next thesis. He found it worrisome that he was unable to concentrate on anything for very long.

Reid noticed that Dr. Malcolm re-entered the room at regular intervals. The man never said anything to him. Dr. Malcolm knew just how torturous it was to be locked in his own mind, and speaking to him would give Reid an anchor to the real world that Dr. Malcolm didn't want him to have.

Every time Malcolm entered the room, Reid heard him change his IV bag. Then he set something in Reid's lap, and Reid heard the sound of a photo being taken. Reid hated the fact that his friends were likely being sent constant reminders of his situation. But there was nothing Reid could do but be a pawn in Dr. Malcolm's sick game. As long as that IV bag was connected and continued to be replaced, Reid had no chance of escaping this hell. The drugs were too strong for him to overcome.

Once Reid had realized that Dr. Malcolm entered the room at regular intervals, he spent one of those intervals counting the time. It was extremely difficult to concentrate on counting for that long, but Reid had succeeded. He discovered that it was roughly two hours between visits, and Dr. Malcolm had come 3 times now with another visit due soon. So he figured that it had been close to eight hours since the last video had been broadcast to his friends. It was only a rough estimation, but Reid felt better knowing how much time had passed. It helped him ground himself. If he lost all sense of time, he knew that he would lose all sense of reality.

Reid had recently started to see things that he knew weren't there. He remembered reading about a study where participants were blindfolded for a long period of time, and most of them had reported having hallucinations. He knew that this was normal with sensory deprivation, but it was still highly disturbing to him. At first what he saw were just colours and shapes. Then he had started to see the faces of his friends and loved ones. After that, his brain started showing him some of the more disturbing cases he had been a part of. He saw the victims he had failed to save. They were blaming him for their deaths, and he couldn't get them to go away. The victims of Samantha were the worst. Reid remembered that they had been kept under the influence of the same drugs for months, until eventually their bodies stroked out from the mental strain of not being able to move. Reid could only imagine what two months like this would be like. He hoped he would never have to find out. Though Reid was fairly confident that Dr. Malcolm had something much more painful and immediate than those girls had suffered. After all, Samantha just wanted her dolls, she wasn't trying to kill anyone. Dr. Malcolm, on the other hand, was a sadist and relished in Reid's pain. He would eventually get bored of watching Reid in mental agony and opt for a more physical form of torture.

Reid was pulled from his thoughts as he heard the familiar footsteps on the stairs. Dr. Malcolm was coming back. Whether just to change Reid's IV and take another picture, or to inflict more pain, Reid could only guess. He swallowed deeply and felt his heart rate rise as he waited to find out.


	12. Chapter 12

Rossi and Prentiss left the doctor's office and were being guided down the hallway of the psychiatric facility by an orderly. Their conversation with Dr. Gregory had revealed just what they had suspected. Samantha had been moved to this facility by her father little more than a year ago. Since Samantha had come into his care, Dr. Gregory had been working with her to determine the route of her anxieties. The doctor came to the startling conclusion that Samantha's father was the source of her trauma, and took steps to ensure that his patient was safe from the man who had done her so much damage. He had made it so Malcolm could no longer see or contact his daughter. He had seen a positive change in Samantha since this had occurred, but Samantha still had many issues. Dr. Gregory warned the agents that the mention of her father could cause Samantha to become agitated.

As they reached the entrance to an open patient room, Rossi and Prentiss hung back a brief moment as the orderly they were following entered the room.

"You have visitors, Samantha," the orderly informed the woman with a smile on his face. The orderly then stepped out of the room, leaving the two agents with the psychiatric patient.

As Rossi and Prentiss stepped through the threshold of the room, they saw Samantha arranging her dolls on her bed. She didn't look up from the blonde doll whose hair she was gently stroking. Her back was towards them.

"Sally doesn't like visitors. Please go away." Samantha said as she continued to fuss over her dolls.

"Samantha, do you remember me?" Rossi inquired. He wasn't sure that she would. After all, she had been pretty focused on her dolls last time they had been in the same room together as well.

Samantha glanced briefly over her shoulder to look at the man. "I don't know you. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." She turned once again to her dolls.

Prentiss decided to give it a shot. "Samantha, do you remember my friend Spencer? I have a photo of him here." As Emily said this, took a few steps towards Samantha and held up her phone with a photo of Reid on the screen. It was Emily's favourite photo of him. He looked so happy and carefree in it.

This caught Samantha's interest enough for her to look up at the phone. As soon as she did, a giant smile graced her face. "That's my hero! He's the man who saved my friends from my father." Then Samantha's face turned grimmer and she lowered her voice almost to a whisper. "My father's a bad man. He locked my friends away where I couldn't get to them. But my hero got them back for me and made it so that nobody would ever take them away again." Samantha continued to stare at the photo on the phone's screen, a look of adoration on her face. She clearly remembered what Reid had done for her and idolized him for it.

Emily put her phone away and moved a bit closer to Samantha. She bent down so she was eye level with the shorter woman. "Yes, your father is a very bad man. He's locked away one of my friends now. Do you think you can help us find him?" Emily prayed Samantha would be able to.

Samantha shook her head and became more distraught. "I don't want to see my father. He might send me to the room with the lightning. I don't like the room with the lightning." Samantha picked up one of her dolls and hugged it to her chest.

"I promise you Samantha, you will never have to see your father again. We just thought you might know someplace that your father could have taken our friend. Are there any places that your father told you to keep secret?" Rossi kept his voice as soft as possible in order to appear non threatening.

"I don't know. Maybe my hero can help you find him. He found my dolls you know. He's good at finding things that my father has taken." Samantha was clearly becoming more distressed at this point. She had gathered all of her dolls in her arms and was sitting on the bed hugging them while rocking back and forth.

"Samantha, your hero is the person your father took. He can't help. But maybe you can help him. You could be his hero this time," Prentiss tried. She knew that Samantha was not going to remain composed much longer, and they needed to get some useful information before they were forced to stop questioning the woman. "Please, you must know of a place that your father would lock him up."

"My hero is the only person who can get things back from my father. No one else can. He will save himself and come back to me. Sally wants to thank him for saving her. She never got the chance to." Samantha turned back to her bed and began laying her dolls down. "It's time for my friends to take their naps. You need to leave so they can rest."

"Samantha…" Rossi began, but was cut off by the woman.

"SHHH! You can't be here during nap time. Go away." Samantha tucked her dolls in to the bed and smoothed the bedding down with her hands. She hummed a soft lullaby as she did so.

Rossi and Prentiss shared a knowing look. They might as well go. Samantha didn't have any information for them, and if they kept pushing, she was likely to react badly. The two turned and headed out the door.

 _So much for our best lead. I sure hope JJ and Morgan did better than us,_ Rossi thought to himself.

* * *

Rossi and Prentiss were in the SUV on the way back to the BAU. They were on speaker phone with the rest of the team, having just informed everyone of their failure to get anything from Samantha.

"What about you guys? JJ, Morgan, did any of Reid's neighbours see anything?" Prentiss asked. She was riding shotgun while Rossi drove this time.

Morgan answered as he drove himself and JJ back to the BAU as well. "One of Reid's neighbours recognized the photo of Dr. Malcolm. She saw him driving through the building's parkade a few weeks ago. She said that he kept circling the parking building. She thought he might be staking her out, but then he left and she forgot about it."

Hotch cut in. "He must have been scoping out the parkade, figuring out when and where would be the best time to take Reid. Did you get a plate number or a description of the vehicle?" _Please let this be the lead we need,_ Hotch dared to hope.

JJ responded, "she didn't get a plate but she said it was a black SUV. Looked a lot like what we drive, according to the witness."

Hotch turned to the tech analyst beside him. "Garcia…"

"Yes sir, I'm on it," Garcia interrupted He didn't need to tell her, as she was already tracking down vehicle registries for black SUVs in the area.

"Great job guys," Hotch praised. "Hopefully we'll have something on the vehicle by the time you get back here."

"Hotch, have you gotten any more photos?" Rossi inquired. He wasn't sure which answer would be better. The photos were hard to look at, because they were a constant reminder of Reid's dire situation. But they also meant that Reid was still alive, and they potentially allowed Garcia to narrow down Reid's location. _As long as there haven't been any more videos, I'll consider myself grateful._

Hotch sighed. "One every two hours like clockwork. We'll go over them when you're here, but they're essentially the same as the others. Garcia is using the data from each photo to narrow their origin, but it's unlikely that she'll get an exact location from them."

"Okay Hotch, we're almost there so see you in a few," Morgan said by way of a sign off. The phones disconnect from each other as the four FBI agents made their way back to their headquarters to continue the search for their missing friend.

 _Hopefully the vehicle information will lead somewhere_ , Morgan thought. They could all feel it – time was running out for their friend.


	13. Chapter 13

Penelope had never worked so fast and furiously before in her life. She needed to figure out what Dr. Malcolm was driving, and quickly. She knew it was the team's best lead at the moment, and she was determined to have something they could use by the time they got back.

As the four agents entered the conference room in Quantico, they were immediately asked to take their seats by Hotch.

"Garcia, what have you been able to find on the SUV Malcolm was spotted in?" Hotch asked, getting straight to the point.

"Well Dr. Arthur Malcolm only has one vehicle registered to his name, but it's a white Honda."

"Ya, we found it at one of his friends' houses while we were checking addresses. It looks like he abandoned it when he moved out. It was in pretty rough shape." Morgan doubted that the old car even worked.

Garcia continued sharing her recently discovered information. "Well when his practice went under, Malcolm had to declare bankruptcy and lost his nice car and house. So that car was probably all he could afford."

"Garcia, can you see if any vehicles of that description have been recently stolen? Also look into vehicle registries for anyone connected with Malcolm. He has to have gotten the vehicle somewhere. If we can find who it's registered to, maybe we'll get an address," JJ hypothesized.

Garcia nodded. "I am on it. I also have Kevin working on this from my office. Now that we have a vehicle description, he's going back over the traffic cameras to see if he can find anything."

Just then, Hotch's phone buzzed. He looked at his watch, and then at his team with a knowing look. The unsub was right on time in sending the newest photograph. He handed his phone over to Garcia, not seeing the need to show his team another heartbreaking image of their missing friend. "Garcia, I want Kevin to join us in here and pick up what you were doing with tracing the photos and videos. Set the rest of us up with laptops and we can go through the traffic images. There's not much more we can do until we find the SUV anyway," Hotch concluded. As much as it pained him to admit it, the profile only got them so far in this case.

* * *

A couple of hours later, and the entire team sat silently on laptops in the conference room. Pizza boxes were sitting half open in the middle of the table. Strauss, in an uncharacteristically thoughtful gesture, had noticed that the team hadn't taken any food breaks and took it upon herself to order them. Each team member had a paper plate with a slice in front of them, but most of the slices barely had a bite taken out of them. They were too focused on finding the vehicle that could lead them to Reid to think about eating.

Garcia had long since given up on trying to find a black SUV connected with Dr. Malcolm. There was nothing recently stolen in the area that matched that description either. She now joined Kevin, hoping they could put their heads together to figure out how Malcolm was blocking the signal from the videos.

The rest of the team continued to go through traffic photos. There was an incredible amount to go through, and the quality of some of the images was so bad that it was difficult to be certain of what they were seeing in many of them.

Hotch looked at his watch. It read 2:13p.m. He turned back to his computer screen before his heart sunk with a realization. "You guys. We should have gotten another photo 13 minutes ago. Garcia, check my phone." He hoped that they just hadn't heard it chime. As awful as it was to receive the photos, it was much worse to not receive one. It left them with no idea as to the condition of Reid.

Garcia glanced at the phone that sat beside her computer. "I'm sorry sir, but you haven't received anything since the last photo at noon. And your phone is getting a full signal. What does that mean?" Garcia looked to her friends, hoping that their profiling abilities could offer a scenario where the messages stopping didn't mean something horrible.

"That's… not good," was all Rossi said.

Emily elaborated. "It likely means that Malcolm is too busy to continue to send the photos. It's possible that something unexpected has happened, like Reid making an escape attempt, but that's unlikely given the state we know he is keeping Reid in. It's more likely that he's decided to move on to the next step in his plan."

Morgan thought of another possibility. "Or, he's trying to distress us further by taking away our assurance that Reid is still alive."

JJ concluded the analysis. "The good news, if there is any, is that Dr. Malcolm is intent on making sure we watch Reid suffer. So it's unlikely he will hurt or kill Reid unless he's sent us a video feed for us to watch him do it." That didn't really qualify as 'good news' in JJ's books, but she was trying to reassure Penelope, and also herself. As long as they didn't see otherwise, she had to believe that Spence was still okay.

Silence fell over the room once more, the only sound to be heard was the clicking of keyboards and computer mice.

"I think I found something," Rossi exclaimed. He turned his laptop around to show the rest of the room the photo he had on his display. It was a black SUV driving through an intersection.

"That's only a few blocks from Reid's place, and it's timestamped right after Reid's abduction. Good catch, Rossi. Garcia, can you sharpen the image enough to get a plate number?" Hotch barely needed to ask, as the tech analyst was already working away on it.

The energy in the room had shifted. Excitement could be felt as the team hoped this new lead would direct them somewhere, unlike all their others.

"I think so. Just give me a second…." Garcia manipulated the photo in an effort to extract the information they all needed. "Here, I've got a clean read of the plate. And…. Wait a minute. These aren't even Virginia plates. They're from New Jersey."

"Who are they registered to, Garcia?" Hotch asked.

"They are registered to… Samantha Malcolm." As Garcia said this, the entire room felt like it had deflated. "These are the plates from her old service van. The vehicle is long sold, but Dr. Malcolm must have held on to the plates. Great, another dead end." Penelope let out a frustrated huff.

Hotch knew he had to hold the team together, now more than ever. They couldn't give up. "Not necessarily Garcia. Put out an APB on Malcolm's vehicle. And let law enforcement know to start patrolling the area we've narrowed the search to. If he tries to go anywhere, we will have him. Maybe we'll get lucky and they will find the vehicle in a driveway." _Except luck doesn't seem to go Reid's way, not when it comes to situations like this_ , Hotch thought.

Rossi spoke up. "In the meantime, you should all narrow your focus to the cameras near the one I found. We should be able to trace its journey at least long enough to get a general direction and narrow down our search area. Hotch, you and I should keep working on this geographic profile."

The team all nodded and got back to work. Hope and desperation hung thick in the air as they prayed that another lead would come that would help this time.

* * *

Reid had no idea how much time had passed. He had lost count of the number of visits Dr. Malcolm had made to the basement where he was being held. This concerned Reid slightly – he had never lost count of anything before in his life. He hypothesized that the immense amount of stress his mind was under was affecting his ability to process information properly. He hoped that, if his team found him in time, that this wouldn't be a permanent side effect of the torture he had endured. He didn't know what he would do if he was no longer the genius he had been his whole life.

The time that passed between Malcolm's visits seemed endless. Just when Reid started to think that too much time had passed – that Dr. Malcolm must have just left him here to die – the man returned and wordlessly followed the IV and photo routine he had established. The last time had been different though. The IV was changed as normal, but no photo was taken.

Reid wondered why this could be. There were two possibilities, in his opinion. The first was that Dr. Malcolm was getting bored, and was preparing for a new video to stream to the BAU. The second option was that Dr. Malcolm was trying to increase the team's mental anguish by ceasing to send them affirmation that Reid was okay. As much as Reid hated for his team to be left in the dark, he hoped for the latter. Reid's hope of staying alive only lasted until Dr. Malcolm got bored enough with this game to switch it up. Reid was fairly certain that the next time the webcam turned on, he would not be alive when it turned off. Reid was surprised that Dr. Malcolm had the patience to wait this long, but then again he had already waited years for his revenge. What was another few hours? Besides, Reid knew that as a psychiatrist, Dr. Malcolm could surmise just how much torture he was inflicting on Reid just by keeping him immobile and blinded. As long as he continued to get satisfaction from that, Reid had a chance.

Reid heard the telltale footsteps on the stairs that let him know Dr. Malcolm was entering the room. Every time this happened, Reid began to panic. He felt so vulnerable in this state. All he could do was hope that Malcolm wouldn't deviate from the established pattern.

Malcolm changed Reid's IV fluid, and went back up the stairs. Reid breathed normally again. He had made it through another interval, and Dr. Malcolm seemed to be staying the course for now.

But in his heart, Reid knew that he wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. It took everything in him to stay awake and alert, and not just give up. He felt like he would be letting his team down otherwise. _I'm staying strong for you guys. But please find me soon. I don't know how much longer I can hold out before I break._


	14. Chapter 14

The sun had gone down. Reid had been gone for nearly two days, and the team still didn't have enough to find him. They were all feeling very defeated.

Garcia and Kevin were unable to break through the encryptions and proxy servers that hid the broadcasting location of the videos, and the photos seemed to have been wiped of nearly all of their embedded location information.

The rest of the team had found a few more traffic photos of the SUV before it drove into an area without cameras. They were unable to pick up the trail after that.

The information from the traffic photos did narrow down the search area, but it was still much too big. Hotch and Rossi had gone over the area in extensive detail. They figured that Reid was likely being held somewhere residential, but there were simply too many houses and apartment buildings in the area. Garcia had looked through rental properties, but was unable to find anything connected to Dr. Malcolm.

Kevin had been called away on other business. Since the team was at a dead end, and another team needed him, they let him go. He'd probably be of more help on another case anyway.

Hotch had insisted that everyone go get some rest, but this time none of them would leave the conference room. JJ had fallen asleep on the table for about ten minutes, but that was all the rest anyone had gotten.

The team continued to narrow down a profile of Dr. Malcolm, knowing that it did them little good unless they found Reid's location. But it helped them to feel like they were doing something.

A familiar ping from Garcia's laptop caused everyone to jolt awake. By now, the team knew that noise to mean Garcia had an email. Though she had received many over the time they had been on this case, the noise put them on edge each time, knowing any one of her emails could be from Dr. Malcolm. They looked at Garcia expectantly, waiting for her to announce that it was another false alarm.

As Garcia opened her email, her eyes widened. "Sir. It's from Malcolm."

Hotch immediately stiffened. "What does it say, Garcia?"

"It's another link. The subject line says, 'It's Time.'" Garcia moved the mouse overtop of the link, but hesitated to click on it. She needed a few seconds to mentally prepare herself for this. The rest of the team had moved behind her and were doing the same.

As Hotch looked at his team, and he was touched by the care they displayed for one another. Both Morgan and JJ had a hand on one of Garcia's shoulders. JJ's other hand held Emily's hand tightly. Rossi had one of his hands on Emily's back as well. Hotch would normally request the team to look a little less vulnerable in front of an unsub. But the profile suggested that Dr. Malcolm had a plan and he was going to carry it out, no matter what the team's words or body language said; so they might as well get some comfort and strength from each other. They were likely to need it over the next few minutes.

Hotch sighed. "Garcia, we're ready. Click the link."

* * *

Reid couldn't control the memories playing through his mind at first. He'd been forced to re-live every bad outcome of every case he'd ever been on. The worst memories involved Tobias Henkel. When he fell into those memories, he had a hard time escaping. His current predicament likely had something to do with that, he guessed.

Over time, Reid had forced himself to focus on the good memories instead of the bad. He thought of his 24th birthday and the ridiculous hat he'd been made to wear. Of his recent 30th birthday when the team threw him a surprise party to make up for forgetting it. He thought of the many hours his friends had spent at his bedside after injuries he's sustained on the job. He thought of the party Rossi had thrown after Prentiss had returned from her 'death' and how the team had stayed up all night that night drinking and talking. He thought about the relationship he had with each and every member of the team, how special of a thing they had. Thinking of this gave Reid peace, but it also broke his heart. He knew that, if he didn't make it, the team would have a hard time coping with his loss and would likely blame themselves. Reid would never blame them for not finding him though. Dr. Malcolm had a long time to plan this, and had clearly covered his tracks well. Reid knew the team was be doing all that they could, and that's all he could ever ask of them.

Reid was ready for this to be done. Whatever Dr. Malcolm had planned next, Reid just wanted him to get it over with. The waiting was excruciating, and as long as nothing else happened, the team had no new clues to go on. Besides, maybe the man would make a mistake in the next video that would lead the team to them. At the very least, it would put an end to this unbearable waiting game he was being forced to play.

The second Reid heard the familiar footsteps, he wanted to take back his previous thoughts. _Please just change the IV and leave,_ Reid thought. But then he heard Dr. Malcolm's voice break the silence he had become accustomed to, and knew that wasn't going to happen.

"How are you doing Dr. Reid? I hope you are still awake and alert in there. I'd hate for you to miss your finale." Dr. Malcolm chuckled to himself. Reid heard keyboard typing coming from in front of him, and knew that the doctor was setting up a new video feed. _Here we go. This is the end._

Silence fell over the room for several minutes. All Reid could hear was Malcolm's footsteps as he paced impatiently, waiting for the BAU team to start the stream.

After some time, Reid heard a female voice that indicated the team was connected via video. It was like music to his ears. "Spence, we're here with you." JJ's voice was shaky, but it was so nice to hear it.

Dr. Malcolm sneered. "No, they're not, 'Spence.' If they were here, they would be able to stop me from doing this." Dr. Malcolm had barely finished the sentence when Reid felt a fist connect with his left cheek. The momentum of the punch nearly sent his body off the chair, but Malcolm caught him by the hair and pulled him back upright.

Stars exploded in Reid's obstructed vision, but cleared quickly. It was painful, but he was not going to lose consciousness.

Reid heard a gasp from several of his team members. Then Rossi calmly spoke. "Please, stop this, Dr. Malcolm. I know that you blame Reid and the rest of us for how your life has turned out. You wanted to see him suffer, and for us to watch it. You succeeded. Reid will forever carry this with him. Now let him go before you do something that will put you on death row." Reid heard the threat in Rossi's voice.

"So, you finally figured out who I am. It took you long enough. Well Agent Rossi, if you know who I am, and you know what I've lost, then you should know that I have nothing left to lose. And it just feels so GOOD to make your little Reid here hurt." Dr. Malcolm landed another punch, this time to Reid's stomach. Reid's body involuntarily lurched forward from the force, and Malcolm roughly pushed him back into place. Reid struggled to catch his breath, as the wind had been knocked out of him by that last blow.

Malcolm continued. "But you know what the worst part of it all is? My daughter being taken away. She's so close, yet I'm not allowed to see her. That new doctor of hers has turned her against me. And being locked up in that place is breaking her spirit. And that's all your fault. If you hadn't meddled where you didn't belong, I'd still have my daughter. But instead I'm forced to sit on the outside and wait as her spirit dies in that institution you put her in. Well, I want you to know how I feel."

Reid waited for another blow that never came. Instead, he felt the tape being removed from his head. Dr. Malcolm was less than gentle, and the tape ripped out some hair as it was pulled away. A small wince escaped his lips.

Reid blinked against the light. After so long in the dark, his eyes needed to adjust. As his vision returned to him, he took in his surroundings. It was dark out now. The laptop was directly in front of him, his teammates watching with worry and exhaustion etched firmly on their faces.

Dr. Malcolm was talking as Reid looked at the screen. "That's better. I want to see the look in your eyes when I do this."

As Reid turned his attention to Dr. Malcolm, he barely had a chance to register the item in his hand before…

Reid let out a muffled groan as Dr. Malcolm plunged the knife he was holding into Reid's abdomen.


	15. Chapter 15

The pain was white hot and took his breath away. Reid screwed his eyes closed, the only part of his body he could control, in an attempt to block out the pain.

Reid registered that several of his teammates were yelling, but he couldn't focus on what they were saying. The pain consumed his thoughts and left no room for anything else.

After several seconds, Reid opened his eyes and was met with Dr. Malcolm's face inches from his. He still wore the ski mask, but the eyes were clearly visible and the look in them could only be described as gleeful. Reid looked down to avoid making continued eye contact with Malcolm. Then Dr. Malcolm pulled the knife away, eliciting another involuntary moan from Reid's lips as more pain emanated from the fresh wound. Reid saw the blade, bloody to the hilt, as it was removed from his body.

 _So this is it - this is how I go. I'm going to bleed out while this psychopath stares at me with a stupid smile on his face and my team watches on from the BAU._

"Well Dr. Reid, I wish I could stay and watch you die a slow death. And I do hope it's slow and painful, because that's what you deserve. But I have somewhere to be." With that, Dr. Malcolm dropped the knife to the floor, and walked up the stairs. Reid heard the basement door slam, then another door further away. Shortly after, an engine came to life outside. He listened as Dr. Malcolm's vehicle sped away. He was all alone now.

 _Except I'm not alone,_ Reid thought. He looked up to see his six teammates staring at him.

* * *

The team stood in shock, trying to process what had just occurred. It was bad enough watching Dr. Malcolm hit Reid, but now Reid had been stabbed and seemingly left for dead. JJ and Emily tightened their grip on each other's hands, as Rossi moved his hand from Emily's back to around her shoulders, holding her closer. JJ's left hand now unconsciously rubbed Garcia's back, while Morgan and Garcia interlocked hands. Hotch continued to stand behind his team on his own, staring at the screen.

Hotch noted that Reid was still conscious and he wanted to keep it that way as long as possible. "Reid…" But he wasn't quite sure what to say. It was difficult to comfort the man when he had no real hope to offer him. Reid was literally bleeding out in front of them and they had no idea where he was. He couldn't ask Reid any questions, because the man couldn't answer.

Then Hotch had an idea. He stepped forward to be closer to the computer screen. "Reid, stay with us. I need you to blink once for yes, and twice for no. Do you understand?"

The agents watched the screen as Reid slowly blinked once.

"That's good Reid. Do you think you can stay conscious for us for a bit?" Hotch asked.

Again, Reid blinked once for yes.

Morgan jumped in, eager to pose a question to the young man. "Reid, do you know where you are right now?" He asked hopefully.

The team was disappointed when Reid blinked twice. So much for that. _Even if he did know, he has no way to tell us,_ Morgan thought bitterly.

Rossi was next to interact with Reid. "Reid, you're doing great. And we are going to find you, don't you worry about that. Now, can you tell us, is Dr. Malcolm gone? Did you hear him leave the house?"

Reid blinked once and Rossi nodded in acknowledgement. _That's good, at least the man can't come back in to finish Reid off._

Emily turned to the teammates in the room with her. "Malcolm talked a lot about his daughter before he left. And he said he had somewhere to be. Do you think he could be going after Samantha?"

"It's definitely a possibility. I'm going to call the local PD and get a uniform posted at her door just in case. I'll make sure that they are patrolling the roads nearby and are on the lookout for his vehicle as well." Hotch stepped out of the room as he pulled out his phone to make the call.

The team turned their attention back to Reid, who had started blinking oddly and frantically. Garcia looked confused. "What are you doing sweetie? I don't understand."

Rossi watched for a moment and came to a quick realization. "It's Morse Code. Smart, kid. Can you start over? I think I remember enough of it from my army days."

Rossi pulled a notepad towards him and wrote down the code that Reid blinked to him. It took a few moments, but Rossi had worked out the first five letters. He had written on the paper B-A-S-E-M before he looked back up at Reid and said, "Reid, are you trying to tell us you are in a basement?"

Reid blinked once.

Rossi smiled proudly. "You're doing great kid. That helps a lot. Garcia, can you pull up a list of residences with basements in the area we've narrowed our search to?"

"I sure can sir. It looks like we have… 47 houses in the area with basements," Garcia said with a frown. She looked back at Reid sadly, knowing there was no time to search that many houses and hating that he now knew just how far from finding him they were.

JJ saw Reid's eyes turn down at the news that they were still so far from locating him. She assessed the situation and said, "Don't worry Reid, we are on it. We'll find something to narrow it down further. It doesn't look like your wound is bleeding very quickly, so the knife missed your major blood vessels. That's a good thing. I guess we are lucky Dr. Malcolm isn't a medical doctor." She had hoped to introduce some humor to diffuse the tension in the room, but the joke fell flat. She hadn't been lying about the blood loss though – while Reid was bleeding out and did need medical attention as soon as possible, it looked like the bleeding was slow enough that they might have a small window with which to find him still. JJ hoped, anyway.

Hotch re-entered the room and everyone, including Reid, turned their eyes to him as he began to speak. "It looks like our hunch was correct. An orderly was caught ten minutes ago trying to smuggle Samantha out of the psychiatric facility. I had the police handling the situation offer the orderly a deal, and he immediately gave up the rendezvous location where he was supposed to meet Dr. Malcolm. The PD is headed there now to apprehend him."

Morgan sighed in relief. "Good, I'm glad this son of a bitch isn't going to get away. You and I should head out there and meet them. We can't wait for the cops to get him back here to interrogate him, there's not enough time."

Hotch nodded. "That's a good idea. We'll have to interrogate him from the police car. Let's go." Hotch turned to Reid on the computer screen. "Reid, we're going to get your location from Malcolm and we are going to find you soon. We just need you to hang in there a little longer. Can you do that?"

Reid blinked once.

Morgan turned to the computer to address Reid as well. "We got you man. I'll see you soon, I promise." With that, Morgan and Hotch exited the conference room.


	16. Chapter 16

Reid tried desperately to keep his composure. He was in a great deal of pain and was terrified that he was going to die while his friends watched. Logically, he knew that JJ was probably right about the wound not being immediately fatal. But he could feel blood dripping down his abdomen and could actually hear the drops as they fell from the chair to the puddle forming on the floor. He couldn't look down to assess the wound up close, but he could see himself on the computer screen. Judging from the location of the wound, it was possible that nothing vital had been hit, but he couldn't be certain. Though he reasoned that, had a major organ or blood vessel been hit, he would probably already be unconscious from hypovolemic shock.

 _Most people have 10-12 pints of blood in their body. The human body can stand to lose about 40% of its blood volume before the massive hemorrhaging leads to loss of life, though there are some cases of people losing up to 75% of their blood volume and surviving. However, after losing 30% of their blood volume, most people will experience a massive drop in blood pressure, increased heart rate, shock, and a depreciating mental capacity. Blood transfusion is required immediately to reduce the risk of organ failure and death._ Reid did not feel better knowing all of this. It meant that at a certain point, he would become too far gone to be helped.

While Reid wished his team didn't have to watch what could be his last moments, he was selfishly glad to have their voices and faces with him right now. They kept him from giving up hope. They didn't know where he was yet, but they were not giving up. He saw and heard their determination to find him.

Reid was glad that he had found a way to communicate with them. The Morse Code was exhausting – his mental capacity was definitely hindered by the situation he found himself in – but he had been able to give the team a clue that had narrowed down his location. Plus, it distracted him from the pain he was in.

It sounded like they already had an area of focus, so hopefully one more clue was all they needed. Unfortunately, Reid could think of nothing more to help them, and he had a feeling that Malcolm would be less than forthcoming with information. He looked around the portion of the basement that he could see given his lack of mobility. The laptop was directly in front of him, his cell phone and gun still sitting on either side, teasing him with their proximity. He could see the IV line leading from his body, but the actual IV bag was out of his line of vision. On the floor lay the bloody knife he had been stabbed with. The door that led to the basement was closed. His eyes moved on to the windows on either side of the stairs, which showed that it was pitch black outside. Then Reid had an idea. He wasn't sure it would be helpful information, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

He started blinking another message, only to be quickly cut off from Rossi. "Woah, slow down kid. Let me grab my pen and paper. Okay, go ahead, what are you trying to tell us?"

Reid started blinking his message once more. _Short-long-long. Pause. Short-short. Pause. Long-short. Pause. Long-short-short. Pause. Long-long-long. Pause._ He was about to continue with the next letter when JJ's voice cut him off.

"Windows? Reid are you trying to tell us there are windows in the basement?" JJ said, looking over Rossi's shoulder to what he was writing.

Relieved that they understood, Reid blinked once slowly as confirmation.

"Reid, can you see anything out the windows?" Emily inquired. She wasn't sure why the windows were important otherwise.

Reid blinked twice. No, he couldn't see anything. He was just hoping that the knowledge that there were windows would help to narrow down their list. He could see Garcia typing away on the other side of the screen before she looked back at him with a small smile. "That's good Reid, you just knocked five more houses off our list."

Reid could tell that Garcia was on the verge of tears and trying to hide it with the smile on her face. She must be so frustrated by this situation, her computers unable to help her find a definitive location like they usually did. And she was too empathetic a person to watch someone she cared about in pain without breaking down herself. Reid wished he could give her a reassuring smile, instead of just sitting there. He hoped his eyes conveyed the message that his mouth could not.

Reid felt himself getting weaker and more tired. He willed himself to stay awake and focus on his teammates.

* * *

Morgan and Hotchner pulled in to the parking lot of a large park to find several local police cars and uniformed officers. Aaron quickly assessed who was in charge and walked up to the older man.

Hotch extended his hand and shook while he spoke. "I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, and this is SSA Derek Morgan. Were you successful in apprehending our suspect?"

The other man terminated the handshake and began walking, indicating the two FBI agents should follow. "Detective Swanson. We were successful in getting Dr. Arthur Malcolm into custody. He has been handcuffed and is awaiting transport in the back of that squad car. I assume you would like him to go to Quantico for interrogation?"

Morgan corrected the man. "Actually, the matter we're dealing with is quite time sensitive. He's holding one of our agents captive somewhere, and he needs immediate medical attention. We need to interrogate him on the spot."

The detective sighed, but nodded. "Do what you have to do. Let me know if me and my men can be of any help to you."

"Actually, I do have a few questions for you before you go," Hotchner stated. "Do you know what direction Malcolm came from? And can you tell me exactly what time he was apprehended?"

Detective Swanson shook his head. "Unfortunately we didn't get eyes on Malcolm until he had already entered the park. There's just the one entrance, so he really could have come from any direction. And we apprehended him just five minutes ago."

The detective walked away to give orders to members of his team about securing the premises. Aaron turned to Derek and gave a meaningful look as Morgan pulled out his phone and hit the most common number on his speed dial. It was less than one ring before the call was answered.

"Derek, you're on speaker. Did you catch him?" Garcia implored from the other side of the phone.

Morgan answered. "Yes, thankfully the local PD apprehended Dr. Malcolm and he's in custody."

Morgan paused as he heard Garcia address Reid. "Did you hear that Reid? They caught Malcolm! Morgan and Hotch will have your location in no time. Just hang tight."

"Baby girl, listen. We are going to talk to Malcolm now, but we have some more location information for you in the meantime. He was apprehended at Franklin Park roughly five minutes ago. We don't know what direction he came from, but at least that should give you another search radius to compare to what we already have."

Garcia spoke quickly. "Thanks Morgan, I'm already working on it. I'll let you know what it leads to."

"Thanks baby girl," Morgan said, but the tone was more serious than usual due to the circumstances.

Morgan hung up his cell phone as Hotch addressed him. "Look, you and I are going to go over there and talk to Malcolm. But I need you to remain calm. He's going to try to antagonize us and get under our skin, and you can't let him do that."

Morgan nodded. "I know Hotch. As much as I want to give that guy a beating he'll never forget, I know that's not how we're going to find Reid. And that's more important than anything else right now."

With that, Morgan and Hotch headed towards the police car holding Dr. Malcolm. They could see him smiling at them from the back seat.

* * *

 **Well, the story is coming along! Thanks again to all of the reviews it's gotten so far. They've definitely inspired me to write a little faster than I otherwise would have!**

 **I do have three more chapters written and in their final editing stage… so I'm aiming for a chapter a day for at least the next few days. And hopefully by then I'll have more written and can continue to post frequently until the story wraps up. It's weird, even though I've known what was going to happen from the start… I find myself anxious to get my own story written so I can read it! It really has a life of its own at this point.**

 **Have a great day all!**


	17. Chapter 17

Rossi, Emily and JJ had moved the map board to behind Garcia, figuring that if they were going to work on narrowing down a location, they might as well do it where Reid could see what was going on. They hoped it would engage his mind and keep him focused on something other than his pain. As they looked at the computer screen, they could see that Reid had become quite pale. The size of the blood pool under his chair was becoming more alarming as well, but he was still conscious for now.

Garcia had been typing away on her second screen, and stopped as a map popped up with a circle. "Reid, I know geographical mumbo jumbo is your area of expertise, but I gave it a shot and I think I've done a pretty good job if I do say so myself." She turned to address the entire group. "So there were 18 minutes between Dr. Malcolm's departure from Reid's location and his apprehension at Franklin Park. That whole area is residential, so he likely wouldn't have gone faster than 30 miles per hour to avoid being caught. Therefore, Reid should be roughly within a 10-mile radius from the park. That looks like this." Garcia drew a circle on the board that intercepted the other search radiuses previously determined, and coloured in the area where they all overlapped. "The middle of this ven diagram looking thing, is where Reid is. And, if I compare that to the list of houses I have, we've narrowed it down to… 21 possible locations."

Emily smiled at Penelope, then turned to study the map. "Good work Garcia. Looks like this area is about 20 minutes from here. Send that list of addresses to our phones. JJ and I are going to head out there and start going door to door. We'll call Hotch and let him know from the car." Emily turned to the computer. "You hear that Reid? We're on our way. And I want to see those beautiful brown eyes still open when I get there, you understand me?"

Emily waited, and smiled as Reid blinked once, slowly. "Good. See you soon, handsome."

Emily and JJ were in the hallway when Rossi caught up to them, having followed them out. "I'm coming with you. You could use all the help you can get."

JJ shook her head at him. "Rossi, you should stay here with Reid and Garcia. If Reid has any more messages for us, you're the only one who can decode them quickly. Plus, I think Garcia is having a hard time keeping it together in there. She needs one of us with her right now, and you've got the calmest demeanour of any of us," JJ reasoned.

Rossi, sighed. "Alright, fine. But call me the second you find anything." He pointed at them meaningfully.

Emily nodded. "You'll be the first to know. Because you'll see us on the webcam."

Emily and JJ rushed out the BAU doors. They didn't have an exact location, but they were going to knock on every door on that list if they had to.

* * *

Morgan and Hotch walked up to the cruiser containing Arthur Malcolm. Hotch opened the driver's door and found the button to roll down the left passenger window where Malcolm sat grinning at them. Once the window was down, he slammed the car door and both agents placed a hand on the car's roof, leaning down to make eye contact with the man inside.

"Derek, Aaron. It's nice to finally meet you. Though I feel like I already know you so well." Malcolm's tone was calm and cheerful, as though he was talking to old friends.

Morgan got straight to business. "Alright Malcolm, cut the crap. Tell us where Reid is before it's too late to help yourself."

Malcolm's smile got wider. "Oh, is he still hanging in there? Good, I didn't want his death to be too quick. He deserves to suffer."

Morgan retorted quickly. "I think he's suffered enough. Now give us his location. If you cooperate, we can make a deal."

Malcolm shook his head. "He hasn't. Not yet. And neither have you. It must be terrible frustrating, knowing that someone you care about is in trouble and being unable to help him. I wouldn't know what that feels like, would I?" His expression turned to anger in a heartbeat. "Oh wait, I know exactly what that feels like. So no, I don't want to make a deal. I want him to die, and I want all of you to watch it happen. I'll tell you where he is when you show me his corpse, how's that for a deal?" Malcolm practically spat as he spoke.

Hotch swallowed the anger building inside him and spoke as calmly as he could. "Malcolm, you know you're going away for this. If you help us find Reid, the sentence will be dramatically reduced." Hotch leaned in so his face inches from Malcolm's. He wanted Malcolm to see the determination in his eyes as he said the next bit. "But let me make this abundantly clear. If Reid dies, I will make it my personal mission to see to it that you get the death penalty." Hotch stared unblinking at the man to drive his point and hopefully weaken Malcolm's resolve.

"You know, Dr. Reid made a similar threat to me once. He said that he was going to personally see to it that I was charged for the rape of my patients. But that didn't happen. Dr. Reid couldn't even be bothered to show up for my trial. I have a damned good lawyer who got me exonerated from those charges, and he's going to make sure I don't see the death penalty for these ones too. Speaking of which, I'd like to have my attorney present for any further questioning. And I don't think I need to remind you that once I've invoked my Miranda rights to counsel, anything I say will be inadmissible in court. And if you continue to try to question me without my attorney present, I will have a great defense for my case built on police coercion. I'm done talking." Malcolm stared at the men, daring them to continue.

Hotch put his hand on Morgan's arm and gestured for him to follow. As they stepped away from Malcolm, Hotch's phone rang.

* * *

JJ was sitting shotgun while Prentiss drove as quickly as she dared. The blonde dialed Hotch's number and set the phone to speaker.

"Hotcher," was all the man on the other side of the phone said.

JJ got right to the point. "Did you get anything out of Malcolm yet?" She hoped that the man might provide a location, but wasn't counting on it.

Hotch shook his head. "Malcolm's not talking. He lawyered up. He's determined for us to watch Reid die, so I really don't think there's anything we can say to get him to give up the location anyway. Maybe if we had more time to break him, but we just don't."

JJ sighed. It was not the answer she was hoping for, but she could hardly consider herself surprised. She quickly passed on to Hotch the new information they had discovered. "Reid was able to give us some information using Morse Code. He's in a basement. With everything we have, Garcia narrowed it down to 21 possible houses Reid could be at. Prentiss and I are headed to the area to check them out now."

Hotch replied, "that's a good idea. But if no one answers, we don't have probable cause to enter without a warrant. Without a specific location determined, we can't justify breaking into random houses."

Emily spoke up. "Reid communicated that he could see windows from where he is sitting. So if no one answers the front door, we can circle the building and look for him. If he can see out, we'll be able to see in," Emily reasoned.

Hotch sounded relieved. "Good thinking. Can you send me the list of locations? Morgan and I will join you and we'll divide and conquer."

JJ nodded. "Consider it sent. Let us know if you find anything," JJ said as she forwarded the list to Hotch and Morgan.

"You too," Hotch said, before both sides disconnected the call.

Emily sighed. "Even with help, 21 houses are still going to take us some time to search." She was glad that they were getting assistance, but was feeling the strain of time working against them.

JJ nodded. "I know. Just get us there as quickly as possible. Hopefully we'll get lucky and he'll be at the first place on the list."

Emily pushed her foot on the gas pedal further down, hoping JJ was right.

* * *

Garcia and Rossi had very little work left to do, so they focused on talking to Reid and keeping him awake. So far they had been successful in keeping the one-sided conversation light hearted, talking about funny memories they'd had together and generally trying to distract their friend while the rest of the team worked to find him.

"Hey Reid, remember that time that you lied to Hotch about having clearance to fly, and you had to stay back in Quantico with me? We had a lot of fun on that case."

Reid blinked twice for no, but she could see recognition and a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"Well I know you remember it, Mr. Eidetic Memory, so I assume you're saying 'no' to the fact that we had fun? I mean, yes, you drove me absolutely crazy hovering all over my space and giving information to the team that was mine to give. But in the end, we worked together to solve the case. I never told you this, but I really missed you after you went back out in the field. It had been nice to have some company for once." Garcia went quiet for a moment and looked down, before looking back up to make eye contact with Reid again. "Sometimes it gets lonely, with all of you together somewhere else, and me all alone in my office. I only get to talk to you guys through a computer screen or a cell phone most of the time; which just isn't the same, as I'm sure you know," she said sadly. "But then you all come home safely, and our little dysfunctional family gets to spend some real time together." Garcia couldn't help a single tear rolling down her cheek. Rossi grabbed her a tissue and handed it to her. "Thank you," she said as she smiled at him and wiped the tear away. "So Reid, I know that you're getting lonely, but the rest of the team is on their way to you. They are going to find you and you're going to come home. And then we'll all have some family bonding time. It'll be great. I'm going to spoil you rotten when I get my hands on you." Garcia blew her nose, then sent the most reassuring smile she could muster through the webcam to her friend. "And until then, I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere. Promise."

* * *

Physical contact generally made Reid feel awkward, but the young man would give anything right now to be able to give Garcia a comforting hug, and to receive one. He had no idea that she felt that way when the team was gone, but it made sense. He made a mental note to spend more time with the tech analyst if he ever made it out of this.

As much as Rossi and Garcia were trying to keep him distracted, it was only partially working. The rest of his brain was trying and failing to calculate how much time he might have left, and how much time it might take the team to get to him. He didn't have all of the data he needed to figure it out though, so he was just left frustrated and scared.

As Reid worked desperately to keep his eyes open and his attention trained on his colleagues, he noticed that a notification had popped up on the screen. '6% battery remaining. Please connect to a power source.'

A sense of dread came over Reid. When the computer died, he would truly be alone. And as much as he didn't want to put his friends through watching him die, he really didn't want to die alone. The thought of it terrified him.


	18. Chapter 18

Rossi had grabbed the pen and paper the second Reid started blinking more Morse Code. Earlier, he had told the genius to save his energy unless he had something important to say, as communicating this way was clearly draining for him. So this must be an important message.

Reid had finished blinking his longest message yet, and sat staring tiredly as Rossi worked to decode it.

Rossi looked down at the code he had written down. It said 'L-O-W-B-A-T-T-E-R-Y.'

Rossi held it up for Garcia to see. She frowned and turned to Reid. "Low battery? Like on the computer?"

Reid blinked once.

David looked at the kid. He wasn't looking so great. They needed to get to him, and soon, if he was going to make it. "How close is the team?"

Garcia pulled up a map on the second computer screen and left it there. "I'm tracking their cell phone signals. It looks like JJ and Emily are coming up to their first house now, and Morgan and Hotch aren't more than a minute out from the first house on their list."

Rossi nodded and addressed Reid. "Well kid, let's hope that you are in one of the first places on the list. We'd hate to lose the connection before team gets to you. But if that happens, just keep hanging in there. The team is close by."

Garcia nodded. "I always hate this part, where there's nothing left for me to do but wait and hope you all come home safely."

With that, the room fell into an uneasy silence. Rossi and and Garcia linked hands and gave Reid the best hopeful faces they could muster, but the worry in their eyes could not be masked. They watched the screen and hoped against hope that the team would appear on the webcam and save their friend.

* * *

Morgan and Hotch had accepted help from the local PD in searching the houses on the list in order to get through them as quickly as possible. They formed two other teams to aid in the search. Each team was given five locations, with the extra going to Emily and JJ who had arrived in the area just ahead of everyone else.

The four teams were tuned to the same radio frequency, allowing them to notify each other of their search progress. Morgan briefed the everyone over the radio as they approached their first houses. "Okay everyone. Remember that we do NOT have probable cause to search houses. So you are to knock on the door and announce yourself. If someone answers, apologize for the disturbance and move on. If you get no answer, circle the house with eyes on the basement windows. If you're at the right location, you'll see a basement light on and our agent inside. If you find him, call medical immediately. They are standing by. Is everyone clear?"

Morgan and Hotch heard a chorus of "yes sir" coming through the radio.

"Okay then. Good luck everyone." Twenty seconds later, Hotch pulled up to the first location on their list. Morgan looked to Hotch and nodded, before they both exited the vehicle. They hoped desperately that Reid was here.

* * *

Reid wasn't at Prentiss and JJ's first location, nor their second. The other search parties were keeping pace with them, and had also come up empty.

The locations were all very close together - some even neighbouring others. It didn't take long for JJ and Prentiss to reach their third house, only to knock on the door and get an earful from a man who claimed they had woken his entire family and was very unimpressed.

JJ apologized to the man. "We're very sorry to disturb you sir. Thank you for your time. Have a good night."

As they headed back to the car, Prentiss pressed the button on her vest connected to her earpiece in order to relay their most recent information on the radio. "Team one checking in. Our third location was a bust. Heading to number four."

As they entered their vehicle, the other teams reported the same.

A tear rolled down JJ's cheek and Prentiss started the vehicle and pulled out. "Hey JJ. You okay?"

JJ wiped the tear and nodded. "I will be once we find him. I just can't imagine this team without him, you know? I mean, if he had been working this case with us, we probably would have found him yesterday." JJ couldn't help but feel that she was failing her friend with each minute that passed that they hadn't found him.

"Hey, we've done everything we could. And Reid knows that. Don't worry, he's going to be at one of these locations, you'll see. Has Garcia ever failed us before?" Emily tried to assure JJ. They had pulled up to their fourth location. It already didn't look promising, with two vehicles in the driveway, but they approached the house nonetheless.

* * *

Morgan and Hotch sat in their SUV after coming up empty on all five of their locations. So far the teams had checked 20 houses, and they held their breath as they waited for JJ and Prentiss to check in from their sixth and final house.

Morgan sighed heavily. "Hotch, what if he's not there?"

Hotch met his eyes. "Then we'll have to go back and figure out what we missed. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Morgan shook his head. "We don't have time to go back and rethink this thing. Garcia's been sending me texts. Reid's getting pretty weak, and the webcam is about to die. We might not have eyes on him much longer."

Hotch opened his mouth to speak, when the radio crackled and Emily's voice came over the line. "This is Team One. Nothing at our sixth and final location. What now?" She sounded defeated and exhausted.

Morgan slapped the dashboard with both hands in an act of frustration. "DAMNIT!" He brought a hand to his eyes, covering the fact that tears were threatening to fall. Hotch looked away, giving the man some privacy, and holding in his own frustration that was desperately close to surfacing.

Hotch pressed the button on his radio. "There's a community centre about a block north of my location. Let's all meet in the parking lot and we can conference call Quantico from there."

* * *

Garcia knew what the news was before she answered her ringing phone, having been tracking their movements. The webcam was still rolling and Reid was still alone on it, so she knew no one had found him. Garcia stood to answer her phone privately, walking away from the computer and leaving her seat for Rossi to temporarily fill as she spoke with the team. She didn't want Reid to hear the bad news. "Garcia."

Hotch got straight to it. "Garcia, we're all here. We need to figure out what we missed, and we need to do it quickly." The tone in Hotch's voice was one of no-nonesense. He was only ever this serious when he was using it as a shield to cover other emotions.

Garcia squeaked from the other side, "I don't know sir, I'm sorry. Rossi and I will recheck everything. Give me a few minutes to figure out where we went wrong." The woman was clearly frantic.

"Just take a few deep breaths baby girl. You'll figure this out. I know you will." Morgan was trying his best to infuse his voice with a sense of calm that he himself was definitely not feeling.

Just then, Rossi interrupted. "Penelope..." He didn't have the heart to tell her, so he spun the laptop around. The connection had been lost and Reid was no longer on the screen.

Garcia let out a sad gasp, before filling the team in. "Reid's laptop died. We no longer have eyes on him."

Hotch's voice was soft as he spoke, with much less authority than it usually carried. "Penelope, I need you to focus. We can still figure out where he is. There's still hope."

Garcia tried desperately to believe that, as she sat back down at her computer and started working again. She had to figure out what she had gotten wrong, and she had to do it fast. Her friend's life depended on it.

* * *

Reid sat in the chair staring ahead at the black screen that had held the faces of his friends just minutes ago. He finally let his tears fall, the ones he had been holding back since he first saw the team on the computer screen; tears he had been holding in since before he had been stabbed by Dr. Malcolm. That seemed like so long ago now.

The team had his location wrong - he knew that without a doubt. Otherwise they would have been here already. He knew that was why Garcia had walked away to take that phone call.

Reid was truly all alone now.


	19. Chapter 19

Reid was surprised that he was still alive and conscious, if he was being honest with himself. It had been a while since the webcam connection had been lost, and he'd been left with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company. Though he had know way of telling how much time had passed, he suspected it hadn't been as long as it had felt.

He knew he was still bleeding, and would continue to do so until he got medical attention. He was almost glad that he couldn't see how much of the vital fluid was pooling on the floor. _Ignorance is bliss, as they say._

Reid could feel his heartbeat speeding up, and recognized this as a sign of hypovolemic shock setting in. It wouldn't be long now until he lost consciousness from the blood loss. His eyelids were getting heavier and heavier, but he forced them back open with each blink. He was too stubborn to give in.

Reid still had a glimmer of hope which he held desperately on to. Maybe it defied logic, but he had faith in his team. They would figure this out. They would re-examine the data and his location would pop up on Garcia's amazing computer of hers. He had to believe that. It was the only thing keeping him from giving in to the unconsciousness that hung so close now.

He kept picturing the team finding his dead body just moments too late, and would do anything to stop that nightmare from becoming a reality for them. He refused to be the cause of that kind of pain, if he could help it.

He convinced himself that as long as he was still conscious when the team got here, he would be okay. Logically he knew that wasn't necessarily true, but he chose to believe it nonetheless.

He stared out the windows, wishing desperately to see a flashlight or a pair of legs that indicated that his salvation had arrived.

A tear fell down his face, and as he sniffed, that's when he felt it.

His face had twitched.

He concentrated, and realized that he was able to move his lips ever so slightly. It took a lot of effort, and he didn't have much control, but he could move something. It was the most blissful feeling of his entire captivity.

Slowly and with much effort, Reid turned his neck to the left to get a good look at his IV bag. It was empty, which explained why he was regaining his motor functions. Malcolm hadn't changed the IV bag on his last visit, and the drugs had finally all been dispersed to him. Now that they were no longer being pumped into his body, it was slowly working its way out of his system.

Reid knew what he had to do now. He shifted his neck so that he was looking down at his arms. He needed to get them moving if he was going to do what he needed to do. At first, a slight twitch was all he could muster. Then, he managed to swing his right arm into his lap. It was a very strange feeling. He had little to no fine motor skills. As much as he knew where he wanted his arm to go, he could only get it to go generally in that direction. It was like he was a baby who hadn't learned to control his limbs properly yet. The blood loss didn't help matters, making him slower and weaker than he otherwise would be.

Reid needed to get off of the chair, and there was going to be no graceful way to do this. He managed to shift himself to the front of the chair. He leaned himself forward, pulling his arms up to hopefully break the fall that was coming.

Reid groaned as he hit the floor. The fall had not only exacerbated his stab wound, but also the welts all over his torso. The IV had been ripped out of his arm as well, but that was minor in comparison to the rest of the pain he felt. Reid took a moment to allow the wave of nauseating pain to subside, before he continued on his mission.

Using his arms, he pulled himself towards the laptop table. He reached his arm up to the tabletop, which took tremendous effort. But he was still unable to operate his fingers in any functional way. He swung his arm back and forth, attempting to get the item of his desire to fall from the table.

Unfortunately, his lack of coordination caused the entire table to crash forward with the weight he put on it. The laptop crashed to the ground narrowly missing his head; but that was not what he was after. He saw his gun go flying to the far wall, but it was his cell phone that he was focused on locating. Looking around, he saw that the fall of the table had made his phone go flying towards the bottom of the stairs. It was a good eight feet from where he was lying, and it seemed like an impossibly long distance for him to travel in this condition.

Reid took two deep breaths, pushed the now broken laptop out of his way with the swing of his arm, and continued his slow crawl towards the phone. It seemed to take him ages to get to it, but he eventually had the item within reach.

Reid's vision was starting to go dark and he felt incredibly weak, but willed himself to hold on just a few seconds longer.

He managed to get his right hand around the cell phone. He knew all he needed to do was to get it turned on. As he lost his fight to remain conscious, he squeezed the phone, hoping his finger hit the power button on the phone's side. He blacked out not knowing if he had been successful or not.

* * *

Garcia and Rossi had gone over all of the parameters that had been used to narrow the search for Reid. Rossi was redoing the math that had led to the multiple search radiuses they had used to narrow Reid's location. Their best guess so far was that Malcolm had in fact exceeded the speed limit on one or both of the trips he'd made, which would increase the search area from what they had initially proposed. He was attempting to figure out how much further to widen the search. Garcia meanwhile worked quickly on her computer, attempting to find any buildings she may have erroneously eliminated earlier.

When a ping came from her computer, it caught the tech's attention immediately.

"Garcia, is that another email?" Rossi asked. It was the middle of the night – an odd time for her to be receiving messages.

"No sir, that's…" Garcia needed to confirm it before she said it out loud. She pulled up the map of the agents' cell phone locations, and saw that a new one was now showing. "That's Reid's cell phone turning on!" Tears fell from her eyes, but unlike before, these were tears of relief. Rossi was already dialing the Hotch as Garcia pulled the address to send to the them.

Aaron answered his phone immediately, putting it on speaker so the rest of the team could hear. "Dave, do you have something for us?" Rossi could hear a desperation in his tone that was unusual for the man. Not that he could blame him, given the circumstances.

Rossi smiled. "You won't believe this, but Reid's cell phone just reactivated. Garcia is sending you all the location, and I'm going to call the paramedics to meet you there."

Rossi heard an engine come to life as Morgan's voice came on the line. "Okay, we are on our way there. It's not far from where we are now."

Garcia and Rossi heard sirens turn on and tired squeal as the call disconnected.

* * *

Hotch, Morgan, Prentiss and JJ had all jumped in the same SUV and were quick to reach the house they were directed to. They wasted no time in exiting the vehicle the moment it stopped. The house was dark, and there were no cars in the laneway.

The agents made their way to the front door. They had probable cause this time, so would waste no time with knocking or circling the building. Every second counted right now, they knew.

Morgan reached the front door first. He yelled, "FBI!" before trying the door handle and finding it locked. One swift kick to the door solved that problem, and the it swung off its hinges as they entered the house.

Though they knew Malcolm was not here, they still needed to clear the place, just in case. Hotch pointed to Morgan and Emily, indicating that he should check the second floor. As they made their way up the stairs to the left, he directed JJ to the room on their right, while he continued down the hallway straight ahead.

He cleared a bathroom before coming to a door that looked as though it might lead to the basement. As he opened the door, he saw wooden stairs leading down into a lit space. At the bottom of the stairs, Hotch could see Reid. He was lying on his stomach, unmoving, in a pool of his own blood. His cell phone rested under his right hand. It was impossible for Hotch to tell from where he stood, whether or not Reid was still breathing.


	20. Chapter 20

Hotch couldn't descend the stairs fast enough, taking them two at a time to reach Reid at the bottom of the stairs.

 _He has to be alive. He just has to be_ , Hotch thought. Throughout this ordeal, his mind had strayed to the thought of what would happen if Reid didn't make it. But he had forced himself each time to dismiss the thought, because he just couldn't imagine the world without Spencer in it. He made the team what it was. Reid probably didn't realize it, but he was what brought them all together. Their protectiveness and fondness of the genius was the one thing that they all had in common.

As Hotch reached the bottom of the stairs, his FBI training kicked in and he quickly scanned the room with his gun. Finding it empty save for Reid, he holstered his weapon and bent down next to his fallen friend.

Hotch felt for a pulse, terrified that there may not be one to find.

But it was there. Weak and irregular, but Reid's heart was still beating. _Thank God._

Hotch reached down to flip Reid over onto his back. The younger man's torso was a mess. Covered in blood, welts, and the deep stab wound, Reid had definitely seen better days. He was unconscious but Hotch could see his chest rise and fall with shallow breaths.

Hotch knew he needed to apply pressure to the wound to try to stop the bleeding. Seeing nothing around to apply pressure with, he used his bare hands to impede the flow of blood. _I hope those medics aren't far behind us,_ he thought. Reid wasn't going to make it much longer without serious medical intervention.

Hotch heard a chorus of "all clears" come through his earpiece, and moments later heard the three other agents approaching. As they reached the landing of the stairs, gasps escaped their lips. They quickly made their way down the stairs and into the room.

Hotch automatically took control of the situation, doling out tasks. "Emily, I need you to go wait for the medics and lead them down here when they arrive. JJ, can you find something to apply pressure with?" He looked down to see that his hands were covered in blood already. "Morgan, keep your hand on his pulse and make sure that it doesn't stop." Morgan and Hotch shared a look filled with concern. _We've just found him, and I'll be damned if I'm going to lose him now,_ Hotch thought.

Emily and JJ sprinted back up the stairs, while Morgan leaned down and did as Hotch said, reaching for Reid's pulse and feeling relieved when he found it. He used his free hand to brush the hair out of Reid's face. "Hang in there, pretty boy," he said softly.

At the top of the stairs, JJ and Emily split up. Prentiss headed outside towards the approaching sirens. JJ ran into the bathroom in the hallway. She quickly found a stack of hand towels and ran them down the stairs. Wasting no time, Hotch lifted his hands so JJ could put the towels on Reid's wound, and then continued to apply pressure. He knew that this was the only thing that had a chance of helping to keep Spencer alive at the moment.

JJ found herself at a loss. She wanted to do something to help, but the only thing that would save her friend right now was getting him to the hospital. She settled for holding his left hand with both of hers, and talking to him. "Spence, hold on, okay? We're all here for you. Just hang in there, the medics will be here any second." At that moment as she heard the front door open, and several footsteps headed through the hallway.

Two paramedics appeared at the top of the stairs and made their way down with their equipment, Emily behind them. Morgan, JJ and Prentiss stepped out of the way, but Hotch continued putting pressure on Reid's wound.

The sudden burst of action in the room was jarring. The medics wasted no time in establishing Reid's airway, checking his pulse and putting an oxygen mask on his face before making their way to the abdominal wound. One of them addressed Hotch. "Sir. I need you to remove your hands now. We have it from here," he said. Hotch nodded and stepped back to let the medics do their job. They quickly loaded Reid onto a stretcher and made their way with him up the stairs.

Hotch turned to his team. "I'm going with him. You guys can follow." He turned to Morgan. "Call Rossi and Garcia and tell them to meet us at the hospital. Have the local PD stay here until forensics arrives." With that, Hotch ran up the stairs to catch up to the medics loading Reid into the ambulance. Morgan, JJ and Emily stood looking at each other in shock.

* * *

"Hey mama. We got him. He's being transported to the hospital now. Meet us there, okay?" Morgan was driving, sirens blasted to keep up with the ambulance ahead of him. The remaining members of the team had wasted little time in snapping out of their shock and ascending the basement stairs. He never wanted to set foot in that place again.

Morgan heard a frantic voice on the other end of the phone. "You found him? Oh thank God. Is he okay?" It sounded like Garcia was a little winded. She was no doubt rushing around grabbing her things before rushing out the door to meet them.

Morgan sighed. "We don't know much yet. The doctors will hopefully be able to tell us more. But he was still breathing, so that's a good thing. He'll make it, he's strong."

Rossi could now be heard over the line. "Ya no kidding. Thanks for the update Morgan. Drive safe, we'll meet you at the hospital shortly."

Morgan hung up the phone and applied all of his focus on the vehicle in front of him. It held his best friend, who he hoped was still hanging in there. _Come on Reid, you have to make it._

* * *

Hotch sat in the back of the ambulance, staring at Reid while the medics worked around him. Hotch had quickly grabbed their names – Allison attended to Reid's wound, ensuring he didn't continue to bleed out. Scott was monitoring Reid's vitals.

Ignoring the blood on his hands, Hotch held Reid's left hand tightly in both of his. Normally he would have let one of the others go for the ride along, but he just couldn't let Reid out of his sight. He needed to be here for Reid, and for his own assurance that the man was still alive.

Scott had wasted no time in setting an IV line up for the young man, while Allison applied constant pressure to Reid's abdomen. Hotch was relieved to see that the blood flow had slowed, but he knew Reid was far from out of the woods. He had lost a massive amount of blood, and every second that passed was dangerous for him.

Hotch felt Reid's hand tighten on his own, and looked up to see his eyes open, just a sliver. Hotch squeezed Spencer's hand back and put on his best fake smile - the one he used when he reassured Jack. "Hey Reid, you're going to be okay. Just stay with me, alright?"

Reid looked like he wanted to say something, but then his grip went limp and his eyes closed. Scott jumped into action. "V-fib. He's going into cardiac arrest. Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step back." Hotch moved to the back end of the ambulance, giving the medics space to work on his friend. Allison was giving compressions as Scott prepared the defibrillator.

"Clear!" Scott said before shocking Reid. Allison stopped the CPR as the paddles were applied to Reid's still bare chest. The man's body lifted slightly from the stretcher with the electricity.

Hotch could barely process what was happening in front of him. Just a second ago Reid had been awake, and now he was in cardiac arrest. He hoped that wasn't the last time Reid's eyes opened.

The ambulance came to a stop and the back doors opened up. Hotch was pulled out of the ambulance, and the doctors and medics wasted no time getting Reid into the hospital. Hotch tried to keep up with them, but a nurse grabbed him by the arm. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to wait over here while we take care of your friend." She guided him to a waiting room and pushed him into a seat. He nodded and the nurse turned to leave.

Hotch realized he needed to let the nurse know something. "I'm Spencer Reid's medical contact."

The nurse turned back around. "I'll make sure someone brings you the paperwork to fill out. And we'll update you after we've finished assessing your friend, okay?" Hotch nodded and the nurse exited the room.

Not a minute later, Morgan, JJ and Emily entered the room. JJ was first to speak. "Hotch, how is he?"

Hotch looked down at his bloody hands. He couldn't face his team in this state. He wasn't his usual 'put-together' self at the moment "I don't know. The nurse said someone would update us. He… went into cardiac arrest as we pulled into the hospital. They were resuscitating him as they brought him in. Excuse me." Hotch rushed to the restroom and made a beeline for the sink. He spent several minutes washing his hands, trying to get all of the blood off of them. When he was done, he turned off the tap and leaned on the counter, looking in the mirror. He looked pretty awful - lack of sleep and an incredible amount of worry and stress will do that to a person. Hotch splashed some water on his face before heading back to the waiting room.

When he arrived, Garcia and Rossi were there. They had clearly been briefed by the rest of the team, because they didn't ask him any questions.

As they all made themselves comfortable in the waiting room seats, a hospital administrator entered the room. "I'm looking for an Aaron Hotchner?"

Hotch stood immediately. "That's me. Do you have an update for us?"

The woman nodded. "Mr. Reid..."

Hotch cut the woman off. "It's Dr. Reid, actually."

She smiled and continued. "Dr. Reid needs blood transfusions and surgery. I need you to sign these forms for consent."

Hotch nodded. "Yes of course. Please do everything you can for him." He took the pen and immediately signed on all of the spaces indicated by the woman.

"Thank you Mr. Hotchner. We are going to take Dr. Reid up to surgery immediately. It could be a couple of hours, but the surgeon will come update you when he's finished."

Hotch said "thank you," and the woman exited the room.

An awkward silence filled the room, broken by Garcia a few seconds later. "So that's good right? They were able to resuscitate him and now the doctor is going to replace his blood and sew him back up. I'm sure he'll be good as new when they're done with him." It was clear that she was trying to convince herself as much as anyone else in the room.

"I hope you're right, baby girl," Morgan said from the seat beside her. He draped an arm around the woman.

Hotch took his seat and fell into his thoughts, as did the rest of the team.

They all sat there in silence, hoping and praying that Reid would make it through the night - and it was going to be a long night.


	21. Chapter 21

The team sat in silence in the waiting room. It felt like it had been ages since Reid had gone into surgery, but no update had come yet.

Morgan spent most of the time pacing the room. He needed to keep moving. If he stood still, the weight of the situation would hit him and he didn't think he would be able to remain strong if that happened. And Derek Morgan was not one to show weakness if it could be helped.

JJ had left the room briefly to call Will and fill him in on the situation. When she had returned, she sat beside Emily and had not moved since. Her head rested on her friend's shoulder, but her eyes were open, staring at nothing in particular. She was trying to wash all of the horrible images of Spencer out of her mind by thinking about all of the good times they had shared instead. Every now and again, a small smile would come across her face.

Emily was happy to be a support for JJ right now. It made her feel like she was being useful, and she needed that. Last time Reid had been abducted, she had been able to compartmentalize pretty successful; but she had been new to the team then. Now, they were her family. Reid was so important to her. She didn't know how to block that out anymore, but she knew it helped to be with her friends.

Hotch had sent a few texts to Jessica to check on Jack. After that he had read and responded to countless work emails that had been building up. He needed a distraction, knowing that the time would pass so much slower if he didn't have something to do. And time had already slowed down practically to a stop, it seemed like. He checked his watch for the hundredth time, and went back to reading emails on his phone.

Rossi spent his time ensuring everyone else was taken care of. He had made three coffee runs so far, and bought practically everything in the vending machine despite the fact that no one was eating any of it. He had stopped by the nurse's station several times as well, only to be told each time that someone would come see them in the waiting room when there was news. He reluctantly went back to the room with his friends, drinking his coffee and trying to think of anything else he could do that would help. He didn't like the feeling that the situation was out of his hands.

The only sound to be heard in the waiting room of the hospital was the typing of keyboard keys. Garcia had brought her laptop and, after failing to be able to concentrate on her knitting, had pulled it out. She was determined to figure out where she had gone wrong with the location.

"Bingo!" She exclaimed as she finally found the missing piece to the puzzle.

"What is it, sweetness?" Morgan walked over and sat beside her to look at the computer screen.

"I figured out why Reid's location didn't show up on my initial search. The residence we found him at isn't listed as having a basement. A couple of years ago the homeowner decided to have a basement added on, but the contractor cut some corners to save money and never filed for a building permit. So the records I looked don't show the house as having a basement at all." Garcia was relieved that it wasn't a mistake on her part, but still had this unshakeable feeling that she should have been able to find Reid sooner. She felt like she had let him down when he had needed her most.

"Garcia, who is the homeowner?" Emily was curious as to who could have been helping Dr. Malcolm. If there were any other parties involved, the BAU would make sure they were caught and punished accordingly.

Garcia had expected this question, and was prepared to answer it. "54-year-old bachelor, Mr. George Burgess. This is the second of two properties he owns. I'm looking at his banking records now. He used to have regular transfers of money coming in every month. Looks like it could be rent payments. But they stopped last month. A quick search on Craigslist shows that he was looking for a new tenant for the house."

Rossi leaned forward as he spoke. "So Dr. Malcolm is likely renting the place from him. But if there are no records of him paying rent, he must have paid in cash. I thought Malcolm went bankrupt, how did he get his hands on the money? Not to mention money for the vehicle we found him in, assuming it's not stolen."

Garcia nodded. "I'm going to keep digging and see what I can find on Malcolm's financials."

Hotch looked up to Garcia. He spoke in a soothing tone. "Penelope, you don't need to figure this all out now. Malcolm is in our custody; he's not going anywhere."

Garcia nodded. "I know sir, but frankly I don't do well with the waiting thing. I could use the distraction."

Hotch gave Garcia an understanding smile. "Okay." He wasn't doing so well with the 'waiting thing' either. Looking at his watch again, he realized it was now the early morning.

The room fell back into silence, each agent lost in their own thoughts, lulled by the sound of Garcia's typing.

They heard footsteps approaching the room, and looked up to find an older man in scrubs standing in the doorway. They stood as a group, Hotch approaching the man ahead of everyone else.

The doctor had black hair peppered with grey. He looked as exhausted as they all felt. He cleared his throat and addressed the room. "Agents, I'm Dr. Carmen, Spencer Reid's surgeon."

JJ couldn't help but cut in. "How is he?"

Dr. Carmen addressed the group. "He suffered from massive blood loss, I would say over 50% of his total blood volume. That amount normally results in irremediable cardiac arrest. However, we were able to resuscitate Dr. Reid upon his arrival to the ER. We rushed him into surgery where we repaired the damage done by the stab wound. Luckily no major organs were hit. We have been giving him transfusions and fluids to get his blood volume back into the safe zone. We are optimistic about his recovery, however there are some possible complications. Blood flow to Dr. Reid's brain and organs did stop for a short amount of time. There is the possibility that some damage was done. We are monitoring his organ functions closely, and everything appears normal so far."

The team breathed a sigh of cautious relief. He wasn't out of the woods, but it sounded like things were looking positive.

Dr. Carmen continued. "His other injuries include welts over his torso and arms. We've cleaned and dressed the most severe of the wounds, and given him antibiotics. They will cause him some discomfort but should heal without any further issues. He also suffered from a mild concussion, and burns from electric shock. These are not expected to have ongoing side effects though."

Hotch nodded. "Thank you doctor. When can we see him?"

"A nurse will come get you as soon as he's been settled in recovery. Though it may be a while before the anesthesia wears off. Mr. Hotchner, can I speak to you alone for a moment?" Carmen requested.

Hotch nodded and followed Dr. Carmen into the hallway.

"I was given instructions not to prescribe any narcotics to Dr. Reid. I'm honouring those wishes, but I want you to know that with his injuries, he is likely to be in a good amount of pain. We could keep him sedated until he has had a chance to recover more, if you think that would be best. That is your call."

Hotch immediately shook his head no. "Doctor, I'm not sure how much you know about the circumstances that brought Reid here, but he's been held captive on neural inhibitors for the past two days. I think the last thing Reid would want is to be kept under the influence of more restrictive drugs."

Dr. Carmen nodded in understanding. "Okay, like I said it's your call."

Hotch headed back into the waiting room, where Morgan was still on his feet, pacing the room.

"What did the doctor want to talk to you about?" Morgan asked.

Hotch brushed off the question. "He just wanted to speak about Reid's medication."

Morgan was about to press on, when a nurse entered the room. "I can take you to see Dr. Reid now."

The group stood and followed the nurse through the hallways. As they passed a large bay window, they could see that the sun was rising. It was a new day.


	22. Chapter 22

As the team entered Reid's hospital room, they took in the image of their friend lying there. Reid always looked so innocent when he slept, but his youth was extra apparent when he was in the hospital – which was all too often for the team's liking.

Reid's head wound had been cleaned and bandaged, as were numerous spots on his arms where they knew he had been hit with the belt. His torso was covered by a blanket and his hospital gown, but they could be sure more small bandages were present, as well as a large one where he had been stabbed. Reid had a nasal cannula to help him breathe. One arm had an IV bag attached, giving him fluids and medication. In the other arm he was still receiving a blood transfusion.

JJ made it to Reid's side first. She held his left hand and brushed hair out of his face. His skin was still quite pale, but a marked improvement over when they'd found him in the basement.

Garcia took her post at the other side of Reid's bed. This was the first she was seeing of him since the video had gone dead, and she was glad to be able to set her eyes on him in person. She kissed his forehead gently and spoke softly in his ear. "We're all here for you, Reid. You can wake up whenever you're ready."

Emily and the men hung back, close but not too close. They knew it would be uncomfortable for Reid to wake up to everyone surrounding his bed.

JJ continued to fuss over Reid, straightening his blanket. She was so happy to have him back, but she couldn't help but think about everything Reid had been through in the last two days. "I always hate this part," she said sadly.

Morgan responded. "What part, JJ?"

She sighed and looked down at Reid's face. "The part where we realize that just because we saved him, doesn't mean he's going to be okay."

With that the room fell into silence as the team contemplated the mental state Reid would be in when he woke.

* * *

Pain was the first thing that Reid registered. It was not as pronounced as before, but it was still very present. That was how Reid knew he was still alive. He opened his eyes slowly, anxious but also nervous to find out where he was. Part of him thought he would open his eyes and still be in that horrible basement.

The hospital smell hit him just as the sight of his friends did, and he immediately knew where he was. He felt a tremendous sense of relief. He was safe.

They were all here, he realized. Emily and JJ stood by the window, talking in hushed tones. Rossi and Hotch stood on the other side of the room, doing the same. To his right, he saw that Garcia had her hand on his and was sitting beside his bed with her head turned away from him. Directly beside her, Morgan had also pulled a chair up to the bed. The two were talking to each other and hadn't noticed Reid had awoken.

Reid had a moment of fear that he would still be paralyzed. He was relieved when he tried and succeeded in squeezing Garcia's hand. She reacted immediately, looking down at their hands and then up to Reid's face, a giant smile on her face the moment her eyes met his.

It was Morgan who spoke first, a smile appearing on his face as well. "Hey pretty boy. It's good to see you awake."

Morgan's voice gained the attention of the other four agents, who quickly moved closer to the bed. Reid looked around and saw smiles on all of their faces. He offered a weak smile in return. He cleared his throat before speaking, something he realized he hadn't done in quite some time. "It's good to see you all, too. Could I have some water?"

JJ was quick to pour a glass of water from the pitcher on the bedside table, and offer it to Reid. He slowly lifted his head to reach the straw sticking out of it. The water felt like heaven on his throat. After a few sips, he nodded gratefully to JJ, who set the cup down.

Reid tried to adjust himself to sit up further on the bed, but this just led to an involuntary gasp of pain from the stab wound. Garcia immediately jumped in. "Here, let me get that for you, sweetie." She grabbed the bed's control and adjusted it into a seated position for him, and then proceeded to adjust and fluff his pillows.

Reid tolerated the fussing for a few moments before speaking up. "Thank you Garcia. That's good." She reluctantly stopped moving the pillows around and sat back down, picking Reid's hand back up as she did so. He gave it another squeeze, and she returned the gesture.

Rossi, who had been observing in silence, chose this moment to speak up. "So how are you feeling, kid?"

Reid thought about it for a moment. He was in a lot of pain, but he didn't want the team to know this. He worried that they would encourage him to take some stronger pain medications, and that was a risk he wasn't willing to take. Mentally, he felt he was fairing pretty well considering the circumstances. Though, he knew he was likely still in a bit of shock from the experience, and needed a while to sort through it all. So he settled on saying, "I'm tired, but I'm okay."

Hotch chimed in. "The doctor says you'll be fatigued for a while. We'll let you get some rest."

Reid knew he had let a momentary look of worry cross his face at that. Morgan piped up. "Don't worry kid. One of us will stay with you. We aren't going to let you wake up alone."

Reid smiled at that. "Thanks. But you all should go home and get some rest. You look awful," he quipped. Laughter erupted in the room, easing some of the tension in the air.

Emily retorted, "you're one to talk. You should see yourself." After a moment of silence, her tone of voice got more serious. "We're so glad to have you back, Reid. You have no idea." She rested a hand gently on Reid's leg.

Reid yawned and suddenly found his eyelids getting heavy. "It's nice to be back," he said, before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

Reid felt himself awaking once more. When he opened his eyes this time, the room was much darker than before. The only light in the room came from a dim lamp on the bed's side table. He realized it must be nighttime.

He looked around the room and saw that there were flowers and balloons on his bedside table. There was also a stuffed bear on his bed, tucked into the crook of his arm, which he quickly threw to the bottom of the bed. _Garcia,_ he thought, shaking his head.

There was only one other occupant in the room, and it was the team member he had least expected to be sitting at his bedside in the middle of the night.

Aaron Hotchner sat beside Reid in a very hard-looking hospital chair, eyes closed, cell phone in his hand. It looked like he had fallen asleep texting or answering emails.

Reid attempted to be quiet so as not to wake the man. He knew that the team had likely gotten little to no sleep while searching for him, and he didn't want to deprive the man of the sleep he was getting now, even if it looked quite uncomfortable.

Reid lay still for several minutes, trying to get back to sleep; but he grew more and more uncomfortable as time passed. Laying alone in the quiet and the dark with nothing but his thoughts felt too similar to being in the basement, under the influence of the neural inhibitors. He desperately needed something to distract him, and decided he could sit still no longer. Reid shifted in his bed, attempting to find the control to put the bed up to sitting position. As he found it and hit the button, his boss stirred and opened his eyes.

"Reid, you're awake," he said in surprise. He instantly sat up straight and pocketed his cell phone. "Can I get you anything?"

Reid shook his head, noting that it pounded as he did so. "No, I'm okay thanks. What are you doing here? You should be home with Jack." Reid was sorry that he had awoken his boss, but glad for the company and the distraction.

Hotch smiled. "We promised you that someone would be here when you woke up. Besides, Jack insisted that I stay and make sure that his Uncle Spencer was okay. He's quite fond of you, you know."

Reid smiled, thinking of the boy. Jack didn't get much time with his dad. It was touching that he was willing to give some of it up for him. "Well I appreciate you being here. It means a lot."

There was a moment of awkward silence. Hotch's face became a little more serious as he changed the subject. "How's your pain level? They can give you a sedative if you want to sleep until the pain level is a little more manageable." Hotch wasn't planning on mentioning this, but he could see that the young man was trying to hide his pain, and wanted him to have the option. He had no idea what was going through the young man's head. Besides, after the ordeal he had just been through, Reid deserved to have control over something in his life; a luxury that had been taken away from him while he was in captivity.

Reid quickly shook his head. "No, thank you. It's not that bad." He was lying about the pain level, but the last thing he wanted was for there to be more drugs in his system right now. Reid looked down to his arm and saw the IV sticking out of it. He had a sudden need for it to be gone. He contemplated ripping it out, but quickly decided against it. There was no way Hotch would allow him to do so. Instead, he asked, "Hotch, can you get them to take out the IV?"

Hotch shook his head. He had anticipated this question, given that Reid just spent two days incapacitated by an drug fed to him through an IV line. "I already asked. They said that you still need it to replenish your fluids. They will re-evaluate in the morning. As soon as it's not necessary, I'll get them to remove it," Hotch promised.

Reid nodded and tried to get the feeling of the IV off his mind. He again felt the need to get up and move around. He had been immobile for so long that sitting still now seemed torturous.

He threw the blankets off of him and went to to swing his legs off of the bed. He let out an involuntary moan and stopped, as the motion aggravated his numerous injuries.

Hotch stood and put a hand on Reid's shoulder to prevent him from further movement. "Reid, what are you doing?"

Reid sighed. _I might as well be honest_ , he thought. He looked down as he spoke. "Hotch, I can't sit still right now. I need to move around. Otherwise it feels like I'm back in that basement." He hesitantly looked up to Hotch's face, expecting to see pity. Instead, he was relieved to see understanding.

"I get what you're saying, but you're in no shape to be moving around. Why don't you get some rest, and we can go for a walk in the morning if the doctor says it's okay?" Hotch desired nothing more than to give Reid what he wanted, after all he had been through. The last thing Hotch wanted was for Reid to start having flashbacks to the traumatic experience he had just been through.

Reid sighed, but recovered himself with the blankets. "Okay fine, I'll stay in bed. But I'm not tired."

Hotch couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face as Reid said these words. He sounded just like Jack at bedtime.

Reid actually was getting a little sleepy, but resting was the last thing he wanted to do. He had spent so much time alone in that basement, blindfolded and unable to move. Closing his eyes put him right back there.

Hotch suspected that Reid was being less than truthful about being tired, but decided not to push the man. "That's fine, we can stay up for a bit. Morgan will be here in a few hours, what do you want to do until then?"

Reid thought for a moment. "Other than actually get up out of bed, I'm not sure. What did you have in mind?"

Hotch smiled and reached his hand into his go bag, which sat beside him on the floor. He pulled out a deck of cards. "How about some poker?" He was delighted to see the smile that broke out on Reid's face.

* * *

 **I am so sorry about the delay between posts this time around. Life got in the way. But I am determined to wrap up this story soon, and start working on some other ideas I have as well. Thanks for reading!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Wow. It's been forever since I updated, and I am sorry about that. But this story deserves a conclusion I am determined to finish it! I expect a couple more chapters after this one will be enough to wrap things up.**

* * *

Derek Morgan walked into the hospital just after sunrise. He had gotten a few hours of sleep, but wasn't able to stay in bed any longer. He needed to see Reid, and was sure that Hotch would be ready for a break.

After making a quick stop at the coffee cart, he made his way to Reid's room and had to stifle a chuckle at the sight before him. Hotch had fallen asleep sitting in the bedside chair, leaned forward with his head and arms resting on Reid's bed. Reid had clearly fallen asleep in the middle of a card game, as a few cards were scattered across his chest. The rest of the deck of cards sat on the bedside table, and it was clear what game the men had been playing. From the looks of things, Reid had been winning.

Morgan attempted to be as quiet as possible, but the noise of the door closing was enough to rouse Hotch from his light slumber.

Aaron took a moment to orient himself before he stood and straightened his clothes. A quick glance at Reid assured him that the man was still asleep, before he looked to Morgan and gestured to the door. Both men exited the room so they could talk in the hallway.

Morgan handed Aaron a coffee, who nodded in appreciation before taking a sip. "So, how was your night?" Morgan inquired.

Aaron sighed. "He woke up in the middle of the night and was up for a bit. He says he's fine, but he's clearly in more pain than he's admitting. And it's not going to be easy to keep him in bed for long. I managed to distract him with cards last night, but today might be a struggle."

Morgan nodded, expecting just as much. "Have the doctors said anything more?"

Aaron took another sip of coffee and shook his head. "They haven't been by yet this morning, but should be making their rounds soon. Remind them that the IV needs to come out as soon as possible." The men locked eyes, an unspoken understanding being communicated. Morgan knew why this was so important.

Morgan nodded in affirmation and turned to look through the door's window at his friend. He noticed Reid's brow was furrowed, and his heart rate on the monitor was picking up. Morgan realized he must be having a nightmare, and opened the door to the room to wake his friend.

Morgan was halfway to the bedside, Hotch not far behind, when Reid awoke with such a jolt that he sat straight up. He was out of breath and spent several seconds trying to slow his breathing while clutching his abdomen. He had clearly aggravated his injuries with the sudden movement. Morgan stood beside Reid, rubbing his back and speaking in a calm tone. "It's okay Reid, it was just a bad dream. You're safe now."

Reid remained silent, focusing on Morgan's words to calm himself down. _It was just a dream. Just a dream. Not real. But it felt real._ Reid's breathing gradually returned to normal and his heart rate slowed down as he was brought back to reality. His abdomen hurt like hell though, and he was grateful when Morgan used the bed's control to bring it into an upright position so he could lean back and still be sitting. He looked up at the man with a mixture of embarrassment and gratitude.

After a moment of eye contact, Reid looked away. It was then he noticed Hotch was still in the room, against the far wall. "What are you still doing here? You must be exhausted," Reid questioned. Truthfully he was just happy to change the subject before anyone had the chance to ask him about the nightmare that was still fresh in his mind.

Hotch smiled at Reid's concern for him. "Don't you worry about me, I'm fine. And actually I was just leaving, now that Morgan is here." He moved to gather his bag.

Reid eyed him suspiciously. "And by leaving, you mean going home right? Not to the office?"

Hotch stopped and sighed, turning to the young man. "I have to stop by the office for a bit, but I promise afterwards I'll head home."

Reid nodded. "Good. I better not see you back here until you've gotten some real sleep. A couple hours in that chair doesn't count."

Another smile graced Hotch's lips. "Hey now, which one of us is the boss here? I can take care of myself. Besides, I slept pretty good in that chair." Hotch turned to exit the room, then paused for a moment and turned back to the two men. "Call me if you need anything, alright?"

Morgan nodded. "Will do. Thanks."

An awkward silence fell over the room as Hotch departed. Reid was still reeling from the vivid nightmare he had just experienced and did not want to talk about. He knew he had to steer the conversation before Morgan asked. A new topic wasn't difficult to find, as there was a question he had been wanting to ask since he first woke.

"Has anyone talked to my mom?" Reid asked. There was an innocence that crept into his voice every time he spoke of his mother.

Morgan sighed. "No, we decided it was best not to worry her, and hoped we'd have you back before we needed to."

Reid nodded in relief. "Good, I'm glad. Can I call her?" Reid tried to keep the question casual, but Morgan sensed the desperation underneath his tone. Morgan knew all too well, that sometimes a man just needs to talk to his mom to make everything better.

"Of course Reid." Morgan pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and handed it to the young man. "I'll go grab us some breakfast from the cafeteria. Any requests?"

Reid thought for a moment. "Jell-O. And coffee?"

Morgan shook his head. "Sorry my man, no coffee just yet. Doctor's orders. They want you to get plenty of rest, so caffeine is a no-go. I'll be back in a while. Say hi to your mom for me."

Morgan headed out the door, closing it again behind him. He assumed Reid would want some privacy for this phone call. As he turned towards the direction of the cafeteria, he saw Reid's doctor approaching. He stepped towards Dr. Carmen and met him a few feet from Reid's room. "Hey Doc, are you headed to see Reid?"

Dr. Carmen nodded. "Yes, just making my rounds. How is he?"

Morgan sighed. "He's doing pretty good, all things considered." He considered leaving it at that, but decided that his doctor should know everything that's going on, so he continued. "He woke up from a nightmare not too long ago. Might have agitated his abdomen a little, you should probably check that out. He's being pretty tight-lipped when it comes to his pain level. I think he's afraid that we'll force him into taking narcotics if he is truthful about it…" Morgan trailed off, the weight of what he'd just said hitting him.

The doctor nodded. All of this was to be expected, given the circumstances. "I'll go talk to him. Once he understands my commitment to his wishes regarding medication, he might open up a little. Agent, keep in mind that he's just been through something traumatic. It's going to take some time for him to heal, physically and emotionally. The rest of you have some healing to do as well, for that matter. But I can tell that you all really care for each other. As long as you are all there for him, I think he will be okay." The doctor smiled and put a hand on Morgan's shoulder in support. "Is there anything else I need to know?"

Morgan nodded, remembering what Hotch had told him. "Ya, can you do something about that IV in his arm?"

Dr. Carmen nodded in understanding – he had been asked this several times already. "I'll see what I can do. If his hydration levels are acceptable I'll certainly take it out. But if not, he may need to live with it in for a while longer."

The doctor moved towards Reid's room, but Morgan stopped him. "Hey, can you give him a few minutes? He is on the phone with someone."

Dr. Carmen nodded. "Sure. I'll just grab myself some coffee and come back."

Morgan raised his eyebrows. "You might want to finish that coffee before going in there. He's pretty desperate for a cup of it himself."

"Gotcha. Thanks for the heads up." Dr. Carmen smiled and headed back in the direction he had come, while Morgan moved the opposite direction towards the cafeteria.

* * *

Reid waited until Morgan had shut the door, then turned to the phone in his hand. He needed to talk to his mom. His thoughts were scattered and he was anxious, and he knew that the sound of his mom's voice would help ground him. It always had. He dialed the number to Bennington Sanitarium and held the phone to his ear. A cheerful voice answered, "Thank you for calling Bennington, how may I help you?"

"Vivian, hi, it's Spencer Reid," Reid said, putting on the happiest voice he could muster. "How is my mom doing? Could I talk to her?"

Vivian's voice mirrored back the same fake happiness, but Reid saw right through it. "Oh Spencer, it's so nice to hear from you. Diana is having a bit of a rough day, but let me take the phone out to her. I'm sure a talk with you will turn her mood right around."

After a few moments of silence, Reid heard a muffled conversation on the other end of the line. "Diana, Spencer is on the phone."

"I don't want to talk to anyone. Go away," he heard his mother say with much contempt.

"But Diana…" Vivian tried.

"I said go away!" Reid heard a loud thud that sounded like something had been thrown.

Vivian's voice came back on the line as she addressed Reid, the fake happiness layered back on. "I'm sorry Spencer, now isn't a good time. Could you try again later?"

Reid sighed. "Yes of course. Thank you." He ended the call, put the phone on the side table and closed his eyes.

Reid's frustration level was building. He felt helpless, and that feeling was all to similar to how he felt during his abduction. He sat alone, unable to speak to the one person he needed right now, and unable to leave his hospital bed due to the injuries he had sustained. He was not as immobilized as he previously was while drugged, but enough that every time he closed his eyes, he feared he would open them and be back in that basement.

He looked down at his arms. They were covered in bandages and welts from the belt he was attacked with. He shuddered as he remembered not only the pain, but the looks on his teammates' faces afterwards. It was the last thing he had seen before he was blindfolded, and the image had been seared into his mind. He knew, logically, that they didn't think any less of him than they did before; but irrationally, he was ashamed that he had been beaten in front of them all. He worried that the looks of pity on their faces would remain every time they looked at him. He didn't want to be looked at as a victim, but he also couldn't just pretend like nothing had happened. He knew that he was far from okay.

Reid's eyes were drawn now to the IV that was still inserted into his arm. He had asked several times for it to be removed, but was told that it was medically necessary. The more he thought about it, the more he couldn't stand to leave it in his arm a moment longer. It felt like an unwelcome intrusion; it could be used to pump anything into his system, and he didn't trust it. He resolved to remove it and was gingerly removing the tape that held it to his arm when the door opened.

"Dr. Reid, please don't do that." Reid looked up, slightly startled, to see an older man in scrubs standing at the doorway. He had a stethoscope around his neck, a clipboard in his hands, and wore a nametag that said 'Dr. Carmen.' He wore a tired but inviting smile. Reid deduced this must be his doctor.

Moving his hand away from the IV, Reid asked, "can you please take it out?" He met Dr. Carmen's eyes and pleaded nonverbally for his request to be met. He knew he probably looked pathetic, but couldn't help it at the moment. He was just barely keeping it together.

Dr. Carmen nodded. He could see that the IV was doing more harm psychologically than good it was doing physically. "Of course, Dr. Reid. I'm sorry we had to leave it in so long." The man moved to the side of Reid's bed and took the IV out as gently as he could.

"Now, without this IV it is all the more important that you drink plenty of fluids, understand?" Reid nodded. "Good. How is your pain level? On a scale of 1 to 10?"

Reid thought for a moment. "It's a 5, maybe? Not that bad. I'm fine, really." He downplayed the pain he was in, not wanting the doctor to take any drastic pain relief measures. Truth be told, everything hurt.

Dr. Carmen sighed. "Spencer, I'm your doctor and I need you to be honest with me about your pain level. I promise that I will respect your wishes to abstain from narcotics, but I can't provide you with the best treatment options if you aren't truthful with me, alright?"

Reid sighed. "Okay fine. It's probably more like an 8. I think I aggravated something when I… sat up earlier." He skirted around the topic of his nightmare. If he didn't want to discuss it with his friends, he certainly wasn't going to discuss it with a stranger.

"Let me take a look." Dr. Carmen moved to the other side of the bed and carefully lifted Reid's bedsheet and hospital gown, trying to leave as much covered as possible. He could tell this patient was a bit shy and he wanted to respect that. He lifted the corner of a bandage to assess the wound. "Well the good news is that you didn't tear out any of your stitches, but there is a bit of exacerbation that's caused some bleeding. I'll send a nurse in to change your bandages shortly. Now, I'm going to increase your dose of painkillers, but you will still be in some pain. If you find it's preventing you from sleeping, I want you to take two of these sleeping pills." He pulled a pill bottle out of his pocket and set it on the bedside table. "Normally the hospital staff would administer these, but I think under the situation it would be best for you to have control over when you take them. But please keep in mind that the more you rest, the faster your body will heal."

Reid nodded to the doctor and gave him a smile that he hoped conveyed his gratitude. He knew it was against hospital procedure for patients to have control over their medications. "Thank you Dr. Carmen."

Reid heard a knock at the door and turned to see Morgan had returned with a tray of food. "Hey, hope I'm not interrupting, but I brought breakfast."

Dr. Carmen waved the man in and headed towards the door, passing Morgan on the way. When he reached the door he turned back around. "Spencer, please let me know if you need anything. I want your stay here to be as comfortable as possible."

Reid nodded. "Thank you doctor, I will. How long do you think I'll be here?" He hoped to be discharged as quickly as possible. He was not particularly fond of hospitals. He'd spent too much time in them.

Dr. Carmen smiled. It was the most frequent question he was asked by his patients, and he understood why. "I don't want to make any promises until we see how you do today, but I don't want to keep you here any longer than needed. Barring any complications, it could be as early as tomorrow. You'll need to stay with someone while you recover. But having met your friends, I don't anticipate you'll have a lack of volunteers there." Dr. Carmen winked at Reid and disappeared down the hallway.

Morgan, who had busied himself setting the tray of food up in front of Reid, smiled. "Hey that's some good news. You'll be out of here before you know it. Now eat up, Pretty Boy. You need to get your strength up."

Reid hadn't realized how hungry he was until he smelled the breakfast Morgan had delivered. Eggs, bacon, pancakes… and of course, a cup of Jell-O. "Thanks Morgan." He grabbed a spoon and the Jell-O cup.

* * *

Aaron Hotchner finished his second coffee of the day as he arrived at the federal jail. After making his way through security and speaking to the guards, he was led to a visitation room to await the arrival of Arthur Malcolm.

He didn't have long to wait. Minutes later, Dr. Malcolm was escorted into the room by two guards. After securing his handcuffs to the table, they left the room.

Hotch looked Malcolm over. He certainly seemed a lot less smug than the was during their previous meeting. A night in jail with no prospects of getting out would do that to a man.

Hotch gave the man a cold stare before speaking. "Mr. Malcolm."

Malcolm sneered. "It's 'Doctor.'"

"Actually it's not any more, Mr. Malcolm. You had your licence revoked, didn't you?" Hotch took a small amount of glee knowing he was getting under the man's skin.

"So what can I do for you, Agent Hotchner? I think I'm ready to make a deal. I'll tell you where you can find Spencer, or what's left of him anyway, in exchange for a shorter sentence. Of course, the death penalty is going to have to come off of the table." Malcolm had a twisted smile on his face, falsely believing he had the upper hand in this conversation.

Hotch couldn't wait to put him in his place. "Actually, we found Dr. Reid, just in time. He's going to make a full recovery." Hotch paused, allowing this information to sink in. He watched as Malcolm's smile turned into a frown, and could practically hear his brain recalculating the position he was in.

After a moment of silence, Hotch continued to speak. "You are facing life without parole, Arthur. Attempted murder and kidnapping a federal agent are very serious crimes. Luckily for you, he lived, so you won't face the death penalty. Though you had better hope that your fellow inmates don't find out about all of those patients of yours. Men like you don't tend to last long in prison."

Malcolm tried to switch tactics. "Hold on now. Don't you want to know how I pulled this off? We can still make a deal, Agent Hotchner. I'll tell you everything you want to know."

Hotch was quick to shake his head. "You have nothing left to offer me, Arthur. Enjoy your time in prison." Hotch stood and knocked on the door. It took only a second for a guard to open it. He walked out without so much as a look back at the man who had caused so much turmoil for his team.


End file.
